Sonic's 'friends' stared at his back silently, as they walked through the trees. Vanilla's house was deemed no longer safe, since the previous attack, and they decided to seek a town. Chip was still on Sonic's shoulder, nursing his damaged wing. Vanilla watched him, chiming in every once in a while with ideas on how to heal it, all of which Chip met with a smile. Sonic watched the trail in front of him, not once glancing back to see whether or not the other's were there.

If Vanilla slowed down, he did the same, patiently waiting for her to catch her breath. However when Tails had complained about being tired, he hadn't even glanced back.

It was only when Vanilla placed a hand lightly on his arm that he stopped. He looked at her face, before sighing and saying, "Alright, resting break."

Sighing gratefully, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Cream sat tiredly. Chip looked at them, and while he didn't think Sonic's should've been treating them like so, he couldn't blame him.

Why would you want to worry about people that were scared of you to such an extent that they ran when you tried to help them?

He broke out of his thoughts when Vanilla took his tiny hand in hers. "Will you and Sonic go somewhere for a moment Deary? I have to talk with the others."

Had she been anyone else, Sonic would've lost all trust in them, but because it was Vanilla, Sonic simply nodded and started to walk away.

"You'll have to wait a minute though. My hearing's a little to well. Wouldn't want to eavesdrop."

Vanilla smiled at him, "Thank you for the honesty." Sonic nodded and walked until he was out of sight. Vanilla waited a few more minutes, until she finally turned to her Daughter and her friends, who were watching her curious.

"So what's so important that Sonic and Chip don't get to hear it?" Amy asked loudly. Vanilla frowned.

"Not so loud dear."

Tails frowned, "Amy's right though. What is it Vanilla?"

"You'd better not be keeping secrets from us!" Knuckles said.

Vanilla frowned at him, starting to see the reason why Sonic had turned so distant. Her love for her daughter had blinded her to the pure oblivious fact that her friends were obnoxious. But then again, they were still children after all…

Vanilla sighed, and began talking, "I'll get straight to the point. I think Chip's the reason that Sonic loses his temper so easily."

Their heads shot up, but Tail's nodded, "He did seem angrier when Chip got hurt. Much more so than when we were in danger."

Vanilla continued, "But that's not the only thing. I think Chip may also be the one thing that calms Sonic down from his rage."

Amy sighed, "So then, separating Chip and Sonic isn't really an option then is it?"

"No, it's not. But what we can do, is try to keep Chip completely out of harms way. If we manage to do that, Sonic wouldn't have a reason to be angry." Vanilla said. "But that can backfire just as easily," she added solemnly, "Chip might be insulted by it, and try and be in the fights to prove he can protect himself, and get hurt."

"And then the whole thing would backfire," Amy finished sadly.

Cream looked at her mother sadly, "Then…what do we do?"

Vanilla smiled sadly, "We should trust Sonic. If he sees that we can take care of ourselves, maybe he'll trust us enough to watch over Chip. Make sure he's not hurt in battles."

Amy frowned, "We have to get his trust? That's not going to be possible! He'd never let us look after Chip. Chip's to important to him."

Knuckles smirked at him, "You're just jealous that Sonic cares more about Chip than he does you."

Amy scowled and bashed him with her hammer. "Like you care! You never cared about Sonic in the first place!"

Unconscious, Knuckles was unable to reply. To the unseen ear, it was as if he had simply agreed with her. And that's exactly what it sounded like.

They continued talking for quite a while, completely oblivious to the black and red hedgehog just a ways away from them. Red eyes flashed, and for the first time, they looked sad.

And the red eyes glanced to the side, where a certain werehog was sitting, hands placed half heartedly over his ears, Chip napping on his shoulder.

Sonic looked at his feet, before closing his eyes.

"To loud."

Written in like, 7 minutes. If you haven't figured it out by now, this fic is pretty Amy bashing.