"So, Amy, what are you gonna do now?" Tails chirped happily while absentmidingly laying up against her side. She smiled a bit and looked down at her phone.

"Boring adult crap. I'm having someone find Silver for me so I can apply for a job." She sighed. Knuckles perked up a bit, turning to look over his shoulder for a split second just to turn back to the racing game against Sonic.

"A job? With Silver? What are ya gonna do, go back and forth through time?" He chuckled, but even as he said it he felt Amy frown at him.

"Nah, nothing like that. He works a flowershop, remember? It was the last job I had, but, uh, I quit super fast for weirdly obvious reasons." Amy set her phone in her lap as Tails and Knuckles shared a quick laugh.

Sonic tensed slightly on his controller. He knew exactly why she quit, and it was because of him. He knew she was over him and they had nothing going for each other, but he really didn't expect that to sting so much. He only snapped out of it to realize he was crashed into the wall and had to restart from the last checkpoint, giving Knuckles the lead.

"So, how are you even talking to him? his phone doesn't work through time." He said instead, trying to distract himself from being distracted, which wasn't working.

"Easy, Shadow! He can create a signal that Silver can see. He can't actually go to the future, but he told me he can do this thing where he makes like a big blast but condenses it into a tiny ball and it makes so much energy it disturbs Silver so much he races over here to find out what it is!" The pink hedgie sat up in excitement, only to realize she nearly knocked Tails over and had been rambling a bit. "Sorry," She whispered, but Tails shook it off with a grin.

"He can? What else can he do? Shadow's so distant with us, we can barely talk to him!" Knuckles piped up, grinning when he won the race and pumping his hands into the air.

But, just as he did, Sonic set down his controller with a neutral frown and whispered that he didn't really feel like playing another round just yet.

"Uh, plenty of things, I guess. He mainly says he's distant because he's actually super shy and quiet, and if he doesn't know what to say he just stays quiet. I don't know all the things he can do, I just know a few things he's accidentally shown me. Like he can hold his breath for a super long time and he's an amazing swimmer. He even has his own pool! And he's a great chef and he's real big health nut-- all his food is extremely healthy and I bet half the things in his house is homemade." She babbled, and only two of them were interested in what she was saying.

"You should ask to go to his house sometimes, I'm sure he'd like to hang out!" She finished, and, just as Tails and Knuckles began saying they would love to and wanted to talk to him right then, Sonic stood.

"Hey, you all wanna get some ice cream? Its hot out." He grinned.

As much as ice cream sounded nice, and as much as she wanted to spend more time with them, Shadow had text her Silver was onnhis way minutes ago and she had no time to spare. "Sorry, Sonic, I gotta pass. Silver's almost here and I can't miss my chance. Maybe next time, okay?"

She gave them all a quick goodbye hug and dashed out the door, waving behind her at the three figures bunched in the door. Amy's phone decided to ring again, just as she began running, and with a growl of frustration she slowed and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Amy! Shadow said you wanted to... meet me for something?" Came a voice she hadn't heard in a while, and, right after, she beamed.

"YES! Silver! Hello! I haven't heard your voice in so long! And yes, I do! Where can I meet you?" After a quick address and confirmation, Amy hung up and took off in a sprint to the park not so far from where she stopped.

She got there a bit earlier than they established, but it was okay. Shadow and Rouge were getting off work in two hours, Vanilla was still planning on her to show up tomorrow, and the park was full of kids and families playing together and chilling on the soft grass. Amy sat on an empty bench and waited.

Minutes later, as she grew anxious, an ivory hedgehog rounded from behind the bench and sat down, startling her into flinching. "Silver!"

"Hi," He smiled, and her anger melted away into a laugh. Silver was not someone you could stay mad at, even for a second.

They shared a strong hug and a handshake before turning into Buisiness Mode.

"So, I finished my online application and sent it into your shop, but I figured it would be greater if I met you in person to actually talk and see if there was actually a need for me or not."

"Yeah, we do. So, since I upgraded from only flowers to flowers, succulents, and canes, a few workers told me they didn't know how to care for them and didn't want to fret over plants they didn't know about than their regulare growing flowers. Everyone loves tulips and roses, but say one thing about a donkey tail being over-watered and suddenly you're the bad guy." Silver rolled his eyes, then waved his hand slightly at the end and scoffed.

"Donkey...tail?" Amy whispered, silently hoping Silver didn't hear her confusion.

"You'll get it, don't worry. Also, why do you even want a job? The last time we got to talk was super short and it didn't seem like you wanted to sit still for more than a minute. What changed?" He turned to her fully, tilting his head in such a cute way it caused her to blush.

"I kinda stopped caring about marrying Sonic," Amy coughed "And decided to be my own person for once and not date til I was sure the feeling was mutual

Silver laughed "Wow, that's a totally different Amy from the last Amy I knew! I like it. And I like your new clothes, too. If you're gonna show off your nails, I reccomend fingerless netted gloves. Easy to slip on and off and look amazing."

"Do you work with plants or clothes?" She smirked, and Silver grinned right back with a terrible attempt at wiggling his eyebrows.

Not long after the two met up and talked, they eventually landed themselves at a café for donuts and iced coffee. Amy admitted she didn't drink much coffee, but she took it with a smile.

"So," Silver took a sip, then slowly put his cup back onto the table. "When are you gonna tell Shadow how you feel?"

Amy was quick to bring a napkin up to her mouth, almost sure she would have choked or doused Silver with coffee. Or both. "What are you talking about!?" She gasped, and Silver chuckled.

"Its hard to hide things from me now, ever since the whole 'almost helped detroy the world because someone tricked me' thing. Every time I asked you how you've been doing or what you've been getting into recently you answer with either not being home, spending time with and/or texting Shadow, staying at Shadow's house, or something similar. So..." He tilted his head and laced his fingers together "When?"

She didn't know she spent that much time with him. Honestly, she thought she spent more time with Rouge than anyone, but maybe she did talk to Shadow a lot... "Is it really that easy to tell?"

"Not really."

"Oh jeez, Silver. I don't know if I actually like him, but he's so cute and really nice looking and super kind and protective and really cool and I like him and how he thinks and how he feels and his fur-- man I wanna touch the crap out his fur I mean I touched it when he was holding me in his pool but there was water everywhere and he's so warm and I just wanna fall asleep in his arms..." Amy groaned, carefully sliding her hardly touched coffee out the way before laying her head on the table.

For a pause, Silver took a long sip from his straw then looked down to the pink quills sprawled out across the table. His coffee was quickly gone, leaving him to make an annoying sound from the straw before stopping. "Are you sure you don't like him?"

"Fine, I like him!" She raged for a split second, then lowered her ears as well and fell silent.

"...And have you asked him how he feels about you?" The ivory hedgehog brushed his hand o

ver her hair and she groaned in sadness.

"No.. it would be way too awkward. What if he doesn't and it makes it weird between us?" Amy finally lifted her head just to look out the window. "What would I do then? I don't want to lose him as a friend, Silv."

"So, how about I ask him, huh? And, it's getting a bit late in the afternoon, and I have some stuff to do. If you can't find out today, then I'll do it tomorrow." He stood, bending to place his hand on her head and kiss the back of it. "Now, clean your face off from rubbing it on this dirty table and go as Shadow if you can hang out today."

Silver turned and left, throwing out his empty cup on the way. Amy followed his lead but went to the bathroom to scrub her face, just in case the table actually was as dirty as Silver said, then left the café and stood outside.

She held her phone for way longer than she should have, simply staring down at it, at Shadow's contact specifically with the small call icon beneath it. Amy breathed in deeply and hit the botton, holding her breath as the phone rang. The noise wasn't very loud, but right now it felt like it was blaring into her ear and rattling her brain.

Then, it went quiet, and Shadow spoke. "Hello, Rose. Did everything go alright with Silver?"

Amy let go of the breath she was holding and turned around a few times "Ye-yeah, it did! Can I um... Can I come to your house? To-- To talk, or hang out?" Her voice was shaking.

"Er... sure. Are you okay? If you want to speak to Rouge, too, she wont be here today." The pink hedgie was quick to tell that she was okay and hang up, already running to his house in absolute fear.

Surprisingly enough, as the world passed by in a blur, she stood at his front door and knocked three times within minutes of leaving the coffee shop. Shadow opened it on the third knock, looking down at her in a kind of expression not easily explained.

"I should really get you a key."

'He wants to get me a key!?' was her first thought, then, realizing that he had stepped aside to let her in, quickly shuffled in and sat on the couch.

It was an awkward encounter to say the least. An awkward phone call, a quick trip to his house, and zoning out right in front of him. Amy calmed herself to look up, then finally noticed the state Shadow was in.

He was littered with marks. His fur was parted in random spots and, from the trashcan nearby along with a first aid kit on the table, something bad had happened and he was bleeding.

"What happened to you?" She gasped, and Shadow lifted his arms in a sort of lazy shrug.

"Eh, I was sent in to stop a knife fight, got stabbed a couple of times, but then one of the gangs that were fighting had a rookie with a gun, who had terrible aim by the way, and I was shot. Everything's fine now." He tried to smile, but it was tired and strained.

Amy pat the couch right next to her. "What? Whg are you saying it like it's just a normal thing? I know you heal fast but come on, you gotta go to a hospital tk get the bullets out at least!" it took some coaxing to make him sit, but when he did, she turned to him and grabbed his hands only to realize he wasn't wearing gloves.

"It... it is a normal thing, Rose. I get hurt almost all the time at GUN because I'm the most... durable. Plus, I've taken the bullets out anyway, don't worry." He shivered, but he shook his head a bit frantically.

The pink hedgehog was pretty upset. From Shadow getting hurt to him thinking it wasn't such a big deal.

"Well, I am going to worry because I care about you and I hate to see people I care about hurt. Plus," She stressed, and Shadow smirked "You're obviously exhausted. Why aren't you asleep?"

His smirk fell and he tried to pull his hands away, but it didn't work. "I can't... sleep."

"Why?"

"Because I can't." He growled then, raising his voice slightly, but Amy didn't back down.

"Why can't you!?"

"Because I have insomnia, okay!? I need someome to hold me-- I used to have Maria do it, but now she can't and I've always had it and never got over it!" He hissed, eyes narrowing dangerously while he pulled his hands awah from her.

While she hated to get yelled at, it was the only way to have Shadow talk to her. Knowing he would resist at first anyway, Amy grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him down, resting his head on her chest. "That's all?" She whispered.

Shadow stilled, his face starting to burn but he refused to be held. What he did forget was that Amy was still pretty strong, and with him being weak from exhaustion, the agent couldn't put up much of a fight. Eventually, after struggling still, he gave in and shut his eyes.

"...Why are you doing this? I'm not meant to be shown kindness. I'm durable. I'm supposed to be strong."

She only hugged him a bit tighter, so he shifted to get comfortable. "We'll talk about it later. For now, just know that--" her voice died for a second, and Shadow noticed the pause but said nothing. "Just know that you're my friend, and I care about you."

Minutes later, Amy heard such a light rumbling purr that she knew it could only have come from Shadow and Shadow alone.

xox

hhey transformation is coming along. the new chap is so long, im so sorry

Also lol do you think Amy's gonna go with her gut and tell Shadow that she loves him or stay friends?