List: Hyper Hedgie, Mike Prower the Fox, Soniclovesamy, Lupus Silvae, GalexiatheChao, Rachel-1994, and Sonic5521!

Thanks everyone, and thanks to everyone who's still reading!

Agh, a month and a half. I bet that's how long this baby's been waiting to be updated. Sorry, peoples. Apparently I'm busier then I thought…

Listen to "Rain" by Breaking Benjamin as you read this (some lines in here come from that song). It'll get you into the right mood, especially for the ending (which I think I love a little too much)! Anyway, onwards, march!

Chapter 10

Sun N' Rain

It was late afternoon when the fox left his home to visit his old friend. The sun hid behind a few clouds, but the light was bright enough to force the fox to put a hand up to shield his light eyes. The wind blew gently against his orange fur, and the new flowers that had just started to poke out of the ground swayed lightly. Despite the beauty, he sighed sadly, wishing that what he was about to do, didn't need to be done.

'It doesn't need to be done,' he reminded himself and this only made him sigh again. He knew Sonic didn't need to know how Amy was doing; but the blue hedgehog certainly was close to that point. And besides, Amy needed to be caught up herself. With the disappearance of the gem only seven nights ago, one couldn't be too cautious. Hence, the reason why the kitsune held the red chaos emerald by his side, planning to give it to Amy, for safe keeping. He knew she'd guard it with her life.

Reaching a hill, the fox steadily climbed it until he reached the top, where a perfect picture of the city surprised him. He hadn't realized how close he was to Amy. Shrugging, he continued gazing at the city before him, and yet so far away from him, for he was only seeing it from the top of a hill.

"I suppose he works in one of those buildings," Tails muttered to himself, the 'he' he referred to being Howard, and he sighed for the third time, before he descended the hill, his gaze towards the lights of civilization. If it could be called light, that is.

Five minutes later, the kitsune reached the outer parts of the city, and he smiled softly when he quickly found the house Sonic said the pink hedgehog would be in. The house had a nice, kept-up yard, he observed, but he warned himself just the same to prepare for bitterness from the family. Sonic had said everyone in the family was kind and polite, except for Howard, so the fox shouldn't have been worried.

But, with everything he had heard about Howard, the fox wasn't so sure if he should be worried or not.

Reaching the wooden door, the fox cautiously lifted his hand to knock on the door, but before his knuckles even touched the wood, the door was opened, and there stood a hedgehog that resembled Amy in every way, only, she was a tad taller, and looked more wise. A confused look spread across the older women's face, but Tails interrupted her thought process by saying,

"I'm a friend of Amy's. Mind if I come in?" The women blinked, and then smiled, before stepping aside, allowing the fox inside the cozy looking home.

"You must be Tails," the women stated, her smile warming the fox as he shrugged off his jacket and placed it on a nearby coat hanger. "I'll go get Amy. She's been kind of downcast since…" The women, who Tails now assumed was Amy's mother, Barbara, paused. "Well, I'm sure you know. After all, you're friends with Sonic and Amy so…" She let the rest of her sentence hang as she shuffled off in search of her daughter, and Tails, suddenly sensing that Amy was as bad off as Sonic without her other half, morbidly sat down on in the living room, taking in the house. Like the outside, it was kept up and orderly; every small nick-knack had its own place on the shelves. Knowing from the blue hedgehog that Amy had a little sister, he was surprised to see no evidence of her, except for a few random family pictures, most of them having two females and no males in the frame. The kitsune frowned, seeing for himself the evidence that Howard was gone most of the time as he scanned the pictures, noting the location of each of them weren't too far away, but both of the hedgehog girls looked happy anyway.

"Tails?" the voice was soft, but the fox managed to hear it as he turned from the photos, only to see Amy in the entrance to the room. She smiled slightly as she walked towards Tails, but Tails could tell-not only from her messy quills, baggy eyes, and ragged outfit- that she was depressed, for her eyes hardly had any gleam in them as they had before. He forced a pleasant smile onto his face as he reached out to hug his best friend, and she hugged him back, sniffling slightly, and Tails prepared himself for an emotional visit. To his surprise, however, the pink hedgehog merely pulled away from the embrace, wiped her eyes, and took a seat next to the fox, her smile wavering only slightly.

"I'm so glad you came, Tails," she managed, light appearing in her eyes at her sentence. "I needed someone to talk to, and Cream hasn't been able to come-busy she says, so…"

"I'm glad I could come," Tails replied. "How's life been going?" At this, Amy frowned and sighed, looking down at her feet as she let a single tear fall. The kitsune pretended not to have noticed.

"Not well, I'm afraid," the rosette hedgehog replied. "I…I didn't realize how much I truly needed and loved him, you know?" She looked up then, hastily wiping away her tears as she waited for her friend to reply, for they both knew who the 'he' was in this case.

"Sonic feels the same," the fox answered, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, wishing that Sonic were here to break the ice. Sure, he was friends with Amy, but he had never been really good with speaking to girls-especially Cream-unless Sonic was around, for every time he seemed to try, they would all but cry all over him or frown or run or…The fox shook his head, trying to forget his own life for a moment. After all, he wasn't here for himself, at least, not fully. He was here because his big brother couldn't be. "He's been just as depressed as you and, well…" the fox paused, trying to figure out how he could word his sentence, when Amy interrupted him.

"Howard's not home." Her voice was quiet, collected, and she seemed to have just realized something for the first time. "And mom said I could see him when Howard didn't know…" A small smile spread across her face, and Tails raised an eyebrow.

"But, Amy," he interrupted, guessing her intentions, "if your parents don't agree-"

"Howard is not my father," Amy growled, and Tails seemed to shrink into the couch a little bit, not wanting to see a hammer any time soon. Amy sighed again, and looked at her friend sadly. "I'm sorry, Tails. I just want to make that clear…" An awkward silence hung in the air for a minute, as the fox nodded his head slowly. "I know they don't agree, and I know it's bad. But, I want to see Sonic, and really, can't I choose which one I listen to?" Tails didn't respond, not knowing himself. "Maybe I shouldn't, but you know, I'm going to." Amy stood up from the couch, her eyes sparkling for an instant. Tails stood as well, deciding not to argue with Amy over what was right and wrong.

Because, ever since Sonic had returned from being Eggman's slave two years earlier, things had never been just black and white.

"I can tell Sonic," the kitsune found himself saying, and he bit his lip, suddenly wondering if this was even his place to get involved in. But he continued anyway. "What day?"

"Tonight," Amy replied, her voice dreamy, reminding the fox of the girl he had known before she had managed to win Sonic's heart, and was chasing him everywhere, for she now had the blue hedgehog were she had wanted him. "Tell him to meet me where it all began." Tails raised an eyebrow at this. 'Don't worry; he'll understand what that means. I've used that phrase before." Content with this information, Tails nodded, and was about to ask if he should go now, when he remembered the other reason to why he had come here.

"Amy, there's another reason I'm here," he stated, and he sat back down. Amy, puzzled, slowly sank back into the couch as well, waiting patiently for the fox to continue. "You've seen the news recently?" The fox started, and the pink hedgehog nodded. The news was something she had immense time for these days, without a blue hedgehog to hang around all day with. "Did you hear the story about the missing chaos emerald?"

Amy frowned at this, and nodded once again. She had indeed heard the report, not directly, of course, since she had been crying in her room at the time, but she'd heard it from Jamie after the fact.

"Yeah," Amy replied. "The yellow one. What happened?"

It was Tails' turn to look worried. Sighing, he put his hands on his forehead, suddenly looking older than a fourteen year old.

"That's the thing, Amy," he finally said, and he looked up, his face focused on the sunset outside. "We don't know how this happened. One second we had it, and then it just…vanished."

"There aren't any clues?" Amy questioned, raising an eyebrow, for there had always been something for the team to work with when something like this happened. But the kitsune shook his head, gravely.

"No, not really," was his reply. "Sonic says something about the wind saying stuff, but really, the wind can say whatever Sonic wants it to say. You know probably more than I do, that if the wind were a woman-"

"Yeah, I know," Amy interrupted. "The wind's been there for him through thick and thin. It's there when I'm not." She looked outside as well, noting a bird's vague song as it settled down for the night. "Anyway, Tails, the wind is not part of this discussion. What else?"

Huffing sadly, the fox reached into his fur coat, and pulled out a red chaos emerald. Amy's eyes enlarged, for she had forgotten the total beauty of the gem, and the fox handed it to her. The emerald's warmth traveled up her spine, calming her, as she continued to stare at it. Tails chuckled.

"You've been away too long," he mused, and Amy nodded her head as she looked back up.

"But, why give it to me? It's not like I can protect it-"

"Technically speaking, you're not "part of the team" anymore. So whoever's stealing the emeralds wouldn't think to look here," the fox explained, smiling wearily at her. Amy bit her lip, holding back the tears as the facts sunk in. Tails, like usual, was right. Another silence clung to the air for a minute as Amy gently stroked the outline of the emerald, her fingers feeling its power.

"What if I can't keep it safe?" she wondered, turning it in her hands as she gazed back up at her friend. "I've never been that good in the team anyway-"

"Oh, shut up, Amy," Tails answered, his voice stern even with his smile. "You're the one who we all knew could protect herself. Or anything we asked you to. With your life, that is." His eyes twinkled jokingly, and she visibly relaxed, lying back into the cushions of the couch.

"Alright, if you're sure," she fretted, and she stuffed it into her jeans' pocket. Tails nodded, and then stood, receiving a look from Amy.

"You want to see Sonic soon, don't you?" the fox questioned. "So, the sooner I leave the sooner you get to see him."

"Too bad that's true," Amy muttered, and the two laughed. Amy, realizing that she had just laughed for the first time in a week quickly stopped, surprised. She shook her head, and then smiled at her friend before hugging him. "Thanks for coming, buddy. I needed someone to lift me up."

"You'll always have someone to do that," Tails answered, smiling brightly, and then, with light steps, headed towards the door, Amy in tow. Another quick hug and the fox left the home, leaving the female hedgehog giddy, for she was to see Sonic.

And soon.

Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day…

"Rush hour. Why the heck is it called 'rush hour' when you're going slower then a slug?" the red hedgehog growled. The wind shield wipers to his hover car moved in a steady rhythm against the pounding rain, which had just started not ten minutes ago. Thunder rolled in the distance, as someone nearby honked impatiently, wanting to get home. The red hedgehog tapped his fingers impatiently, resisting the urge to honk the horn himself. Here he was, coming home a week early, and he was being held up by some dumb rain clouds and a traffic accident thirty miles down, that he wouldn't even run into.

Dumb luck.

With a sigh, he closed his weary eyes, as he ran a hand through his short spines. He was so tired. Work had practically destroyed every one of his brain cells that week, and he had rarely heard from his family. He knew they were mad at him about Amy, but seriously, why couldn't they at least return his calls more than once? It made his week all the harder and draining.

Someone was honking, and he opened his eyes, and quickly noticed a two feet gap between him and the other hover car, and he growled.

"Alright, I'm going!" he snapped, although he knew no one could hear him, and he pressed the accelerator down once, closing the inches between him and the other car. Again, he sighed, feeling even more exhausted then he had a minute ago. Staring outside for a minute, he watched the rain fall, counting the drops that landed on the car's glass.

'1, 2, 3…'

He forced his gaze away from the liquid, and turned to his cell phone, suddenly wondering if he should call home, to let his wife know that he was coming home early. Maybe she'd make his favorite dish.

'Fat chance,' he told himself, but he picked up the phone anyway, and dialed home.

He waited for someone to pick up. Anyone. It kept ringing.

Ring, ring, go away. Never come again, I say…

"Hello," a voice said. The hedgehog smiled wearily, and he opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted. "You have reached Howard, Barbara, and Jamie Kindle's home."

His heart sunk. He wanted to cry.

Someone was screaming, "I got it!" and suddenly he heard Jamie's childish voice.

"Hi, Dad," she started. "Sorry about that. Mama was busy…"

'She didn't say 'Daddy' again,' he observed. 'And Mama's not busy.'

He faked a pleasant voice.

"Hi, honey. What's new over there?"

"Amy-" the girl started, but then she suddenly stopped. "Nothing much, really. Wanna talk to Mama?"

"I'd love to," the hedgehog replied, and he could picture the child handing the phone to her mother as she ran off.

"Barbara?" His voice didn't sound pleasant anymore, because he couldn't fake it. He was too drained. He waited for her own voice, but he heard no reply. "Sweetie, I'm coming home early."

"Since when?" she questioned. His heart went limp inside his chest. There hadn't been joyous screaming in the background from Jamie. There hadn't been a sigh of relief from his wife, followed by a chuckle and an explanation over how Jamie had been driving her up the wall.

"Since, today," he answered, not knowing what else to say. The car in front of him moved an inch. He moved too.

"Oh." There was a long, long silence. "Alright. What time will you be home?"

"In about an hour or so," he replied, forcing himself to keep his voice from cracking. If her voice was going to be unemotional, then so was his, he figured.

"Nice notice, Howard," she grunted. The hedgehog opened his mouth to explain, but she cut in before him. "I'll set an extra plate."

"Tha-"

A buzz rang through his ears. Static. She had hung up on him. Slowly, he set his phone down, looking at his feet.

"I love you," he said, but he knew she didn't hear him.

Not a family or honest plea remains to say, rain, rain, go away…