Spaghetti and meatballs, who would've guessed? The thought forced Amy to stifle her giggles as she filled her plate up with the wonderful smelling dinner. Of all the food that exists to be made, spaghetti and meatballs happened to be the one thing Tails knew how to make well. Tails found this out the hard way when he literally burnt a bowl of cereal once. Amy began to bite her bottom lip to force her laughter to keep quiet. What made the whole food situation so humorous was that Tails absolutely refused to tell anyone exactly how he burnt that bowl of cereal.
Quickly the pink hedgehog's plate was covered in her limit of food. After all, there was only so much Italian food Amy could eat before having to become worried about over-eating. It all looked so good. Amy could easily tell that Tails had worked hard to make this dish. Her only hope was that the fox's effort was evident in the taste of the sauce. The sauce was a constant foe for the young fox. In all the times he had made spaghetti it was the sauce that proved to be the most difficult thing to master.
Twirling the noodles up in her fork, Amy took great care in making the noodles absorb as much of the sauce as possible so she could give the cook her honest opinion. With a deep breath Amy took in the warm ball of noodles. Her taste buds were suddenly assaulted with the array of different spices she could sense within the sauce. Amy eyed the plate with pleasure as she allowed the fork-full of spaghetti to fall into her stomach. She had honestly never tasted better sauce in her life.
"Tails, you outdid yourself this time. This sauce is amazing!" The compliment came with the usual upbeat energy that Amy was sure the group expected of her.
His eyes glistening with gratitude, Tails smiled happily. "You think so? I've never been able to get it just right. I'll have to remember this recipe." The pink hedgehog took great satisfaction in watching the fox energetically scoop up noodles with his fork into his waiting maw.
As usual, Cream chimed in following Amy's compliment. "Yeah Tails, I agree with Amy. Good job!" Unlike the pink hedgehog's opinion, the rabbit's managed to make Tails blush.
"I'll make sure to give Vanilla my recipe. That way you can enjoy it whenever."
Though Cream giggled in appreciation of the offer, Amy could tell Tails regretted his words. For the last year it had become clear to Vanilla, Amy, and Rouge that the fox had developed romantic feelings for Cream. It was cute to watch how the super-genius stumbled clumsily over his very own words for over the young rabbit. No one was sure whether or not Cream had caught on yet, but Amy hoped she would, if only to let the boy down gently to prevent leading him on.
Eating slowly, Amy observed the table subtly. Vanilla sat at the head of the table eating her plate politely with air of elegance that just couldn't be copied to perfection. Sitting to her right on the side of the rectangular table was Vanilla's pride and joy, Cream. The young rabbit postured herself in an attempt to copy her mother's form. Even the way she ate the spaghetti mimicked Vanilla. Sitting to Cream's right was, much to Tails' silent chagrin, Knuckles. The echidna was obviously in conflict with himself. It was clear to Amy that the amount of effort he put into remaining as polite in eating as possible was astounding. She had personally never seen the guardian act so gentlemanly. However, sulking directly under the surface was the sloppy echidna that Amy remembered from her first meeting with Knuckles. It showed itself slightly every time her slurped up a noodle. Sitting across from Cream was none other than her secret admirer Tails.
Amy's mind stopped as she observed the way the fox boy yearned to sit next to Cream. It hurt the pink hedgehog greatly to see. Tails' jealousy was very apparent. Right now he wanted to be Knuckles more than anything else in the world. Strange as it was, Amy wanted to be Tails more than anyone else in the world. The fox boy knew where Sonic was and if there was anyone that could convince the blue blur to come home, it was Tails. Amy felt so very sorry for the fox boy, she knew how it felt to sit and watch the object your heart desires seemingly ignore your advances.
Unfortunately for Tails, the object he desired was only interested in one person; Knuckles. It had begun innocently enough; admiration for saving the world and thankfulness at being saved. Much to everyone's surprise, Cream fell head over heels for the echidna. It wasn't that Amy couldn't understand the attraction, Knuckles was indeed a beautiful creature. Broad shoulders, thick arms, a strong brow that could support the heaviest of scowls, angelic spines that fell like dreadlocks and a herculean jaw line that defied the typical template of handsomeness. Add onto that with the mystique that came with Knuckles job as the guardian of the Master Emerald and you get an Adonis. Sadly, this alienated Tails as he could hardly capture Cream's imagination like Knuckles did. Every strict teaching that Vanilla brought her daughter up with didn't exist with the echidna. Not to mention the fact that Vanilla was uneasy about how her daughter felt. In fact, Amy was almost convinced that some of the attraction stemmed from the lack of rules Knuckles abided by, a stark contrast to Cream's rule-riddled life. The adult rabbit just didn't know if she could trust Knuckles enough to not take advantage of her daughter. Luckily, Rouge and Amy managed to convince the worried mother that the guardian was far too stupid to even realize Cream's attraction to him let alone take advantage of it.
Almost as if on cue Cream chirped a nervous question up to the guardian that captivated her, "What do you think Knuckles, didn't Tails do a fine job with the spaghetti?" Cream's eyes sparkled as she found an excuse to actually talk to the echidna.
Knuckles furrowed his brow in thought as his fork clumsily pushed a meatball around his plate. Again Amy had to suppress a giggle, this time thanks to just how much thought Knuckles was seemingly putting into such a simple analysis.
"I don't know, I'm not really a fan of Italian food, but I guess its fine."
"That's ok; Amy brought some pies for desert! They're in the kitchen just waiting to be eaten."
Fierce purple eyes suddenly began to bore into Amy's. The sheer force with which the echidna's attention was caught sent a tremor down the pink hedgehog's back. "Pies?"
Making sure to finish chewing completely before answering, Amy nervously spoke, "Yeah, banana cream pies. They're kind of my specialty…" Her nerves rattled like an old car as the pink hedgehog looked for any sign of a reaction. She didn't want to be the one to ruin the evening by feeding Knuckles something he didn't want.
All of Amy's nerves fell to a peaceful state as Knuckles' face contorted into the classic shape of confusion. She had seen this look one too many times from the echidna and it never lost the humor that came with it. "Banana cream? You can put bananas into a pie?"
The entire table froze as even Vanilla was forced to restrain her laughter at the absurdity that was Knuckles' question.
"Well…yes, if you're a good enough cook I suppose." That was the straw that broke the camel's back. With obvious exclusion of Knuckles, who just sat in embarrassment, everybody at the table began to laugh. Vanilla brought her hand to her mouth to try and retain some of her regality. Cream innocently giggled along with Amy, though the young rabbit made sure to keep an eye on the echidna to see if his feelings were hurt by the laughter. Tails lost it, he laughed like he had never heard a joke in his life.
Sighing happily as she made quick work of the remaining spaghetti on her plate, Amy just watched as the rest of the table conversed happily. The conversations were nearly all held by Cream and Tails with some inclusion of Amy and Vanilla. Knuckles, of course, just sat and watched everyone else have fun. Amy loved this, she missed nights like these.
