Sonic
"Oh cool! They have the new Tomatopotamus VR game! Now with new Blast Processing technology!? Tails, we gotta go check it out," Sonic excitedly pointed out the poster on the front window of the aging Dr. Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Center and Pizzeria™ (though they all called it Eggman's to save on syllables). Sonic was as kinetic as a pinball trapped between two bumpers, bouncing with each step he took.
Tails always loved to be around Sonic when he got like this. His endearingly childish demeanor always balanced well with Tails' premature maturity. "Now Sonic, you know 'Blast Processing' is just a gimmick with no real defined meaning or—"
"Ah ah ah," Sonic rose a finger to Tails' mouth. "The illusion is all I have, Tails. Let me revel."
Tails chuckled as Knuckles fondly shook his head, absently twirling his car keys around his fingers. "Alright you two, enough talk. It's time for us to clean out Dr. Eggman for all he's got." He placed an arm around each of them as they stepped together towards the sliding glass doors.
"No prize unclaimed, no score left unbroken," Sonic raised a fist in the air, chanting their pledge to the heavens. "Tonight, we dine on overpriced, yet mediocre pizza!" The others joined him, giving one last hoot before breaching the threshold of their next conquest, ignoring the dry look of the overworked teen at the front counter.
Sonic grinned as he basked in the glow of blinking arcade machines, the different colors bouncing off his quills, tinting the blue different shades of purple, magenta, green. Dr. Eggman's had been slowly declining in the last handful of years, its local patrons leaving for newer and better. Honestly, it was a wonder the place hadn't gone under completely. But, still, Sonic loved it all the same. It was something of a hotspot for the gang when they were in high school—countless weekends spent driving up to Green Hill in Knuckles' beat-up car, spending hours wasting tokens trying to break their last record.
As much as the titular owner, whose real name was robot-something, hated Sonic and the gang for always cleaning out his prize corner, their posse seemed to be the only thing that ever kept this place open.
They hadn't been here since graduation, and Sonic was itching for the familiar nostalgia of the rigged games. He looked around, trying to decide which machine to try first. This was exactly the break he needed. His gaze flicked down to Tails—the break they all needed, really.
Knuckles turned to them, spreading his arms wide with a smirk. "Divide and conquer?"
Sonic and Tails immediately nodded enthusiastically, wasting no time to race off to their favorite machines—they knew the drill.
Knuckles strode over to the tiny red punching bag dangling from a flickering machine, already squaring against the Hammer Glove 5000. Tails sat before the Casino Paradise, a totally-not-blackjack machine, already doing the mental math to outwit the machine's A.I.
Sonic found himself in front of a board 7 colored gems, blinking enticingly. The Super Chaos Blaster Master. He put his hands on his hips, staring down the game's LED gems. "Hello, old friend." He slid a token into the slot, stretching his arms as the chiptune music played through the crackly speakers. The aim of the game was to slap each gem that was turned on before they turned off. The more you hit, the more tickets. Hit them all…
"Jackpot!" Sonic had fingers faster than a hummingbird's wings, with even faster reflexes to boot. He could drain this machine for all the tickets it had in mere minutes. At least he would if the machine didn't fail his last hit for 15-20 games straight. It used to take 50 games for him to hit a jackpot, when him and the gang came here more frequently. "Huh, guess old Eggman had thought we were gone for good. Sorry to disappoint, Doc, but Sonic the Hedgehog will always be around to best your machines."
Three Jackpots later, the machine was spent, all the gems turning red, displaying a flashing out of order message. "Well, looks like I'm the real Blaster Master here! Booyah," Sonic celebrated his first success of the night with a little jig. With his string of tickets secured under his arms, Sonic began to scope out any other games he'd be fast enough to take on.
Surprisingly, there were actually a fair bit of people hanging around here. Either kids running wild from their exhausted parents catching some Z's in the dining area or young adults having a nostalgic and light-hearted date night. It seemed like a weird place to have a date, at least to Sonic. Though, they seemed like they were having fun—laughing and trying to beat each others' scores, holding each other close as they carefully chose a stuffed bear from the crane machines, grinning as they gave soft pecks on blushing cheeks—
"Sonic?"
Sonic was startled as a voice sounded from behind him, almost dropping his streamers of prize-winning paper.
He whipped around as the pink hedgehog beside him gave a smile. Her quills were longer now, brushed neatly to frame her face, but Sonic would recognize those green eyes anywhere.
"Amy?" How long had it been? Sonic could hardly forget the day Amy Rose had transferred back in junior year of high school. They had known each other for years, but even that wasn't enough to suppress the inevitable falling out that always seemed to come with a friend changing schools.
"Oh my god! It's been ages! Your mom told my mom that you and Tails were going to GHU, but I kept forgetting to get in touch with you guys! So, how've you been? You liking Green Hill," she shouted over the arcade noise. The pure enthusiasm that coated her every word was infectious. Amy was the genuine type, always completely herself. Sonic had always wondered how a person could have such an open and honest heart, to the point where you couldn't help but do the same, laying your own truths bare.
"Yeah, it's been a while! Honestly, it's been a bit rough—had some troubles adjusting these past couple months. But, I think I'm getting my sea legs now, slowly but surely. I've also meant to, like, text you, but things have been crazy busy!" If he was being honest, he'd had a more selfish reason for not keeping up with Amy then he'd like to admit to himself. Her overbearingly caring, almost nagging attitude (not to mention her less-than-subtle crush on Sonic) had made Sonic pause whenever he thought about checking in on her.
He'd never really liked how she'd always just happened to be around his next classes, or how she'd always just happened to have extra lunch for him. It was beyond kind, and he really appreciated it, but as much as he loved her as a friend, he couldn't reciprocate the puppy-love she clearly felt for him. Her moving, as much as it pained him, gave him a guilty sense of relief, not having to be around a person he could never really make happy.
Amy gave a laugh, bright and loud, grin spreading behind her hand. "Glad to see you're just as transparent as ever."
Sonic blushed, suddenly feeling caught. "Whad'ya mean? I seriously meant to text you the other day—"
"Don't worry, you don't have to make excuses—I know I was suuuper cringey back then. Don't blame you for avoiding that Amy." Her sugar-sweet grin briefly fell into an awkward wince as they both reminisced on said cringe. She shook it off before diving right back in. "But yeah, brief recap—I enrolled at GHU, dropped out of GHU, got a job in design, did some serious soul-searching, and finally got a better haircut. So yeah—things are better now."
Sonic was left blinking in the wake of Amy's mile-a-minute catch-up monologue, brain stuttering to process the years of info delivered in seconds. Before he could open his mouth to say something objectively intelligent like "cool," Knuckles and Tails were striding over behind him.
"Amy," Knuckles shouted, immediately sweeping up her small frame into a patented Knuckles bear hug.
"Oh man, Amy's here too?" Tails grinned, peering up at his newly-reunited group of friends. "Now it's really just like old times."
Amy mussed Tails' bangs as she was released from being swallowed in Knuckles' arms. "Not just like—you have got to stop growing up so much, kiddo! It's making me feel like an old lady!" Coming from anyone else, it would seem like a critique—a comment on Tails' premature maturity. But her kind, motherly smile shone with a kind of pride and Tails blushed in its light.
"What are you even doing here," Knuckles finally asked, cocking his head.
Amy's eyes flicked back to Knuckles, realizing she'd momentarily forgotten her reason for coming. "Oh, yeah! I'm here with my girlfriend and her best friend!"
All three boys paused.
As if sensing their impending introduction, two figures padded up beside Amy—a cat with sharp eyes and soft purple fur and a gray hedgehog with a messy head of quills.
"Blaze, Silver, meet Tails, Knuckles, and Sonic."
The dining area of Dr. Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Center and Pizzeria™ was anything but Incredible. Or interstellar. And, honestly, only the slightest bit amusing, as it seemed to be plucked straight out of a period in time decades before any of its inhabitants were born. Dr. Eggman must have either enjoyed the "rustic" (ie, decrepit) and "retro" (ie, outdated) aesthetic enough to preserve it so carefully, or more realistically, didn't have the money to shoot for anything newer.
The newly-expanded gang had decided to mosey on over to one of the cleaner booths in the dining area, the seams of the seats either burst from years of rambunctious children or duct taped as any penny-pinching restaurateur would do. Sonic and his crew sat at one side, Amy and hers on the other, a "fresh" order of pizza sharing the space between them.
The conversations started out light enough, Amy mostly catching her companions up on her high school years with the boys. Sonic couldn't help but wince as she recounted some of his more embarrassing behaviors. "Sonic even went through a rock phase, bought a guitar and everything! What was the name of your 'band' going to be again? 'Sonic- something or other'? Man. It's gonna kill me if I can't remember it!"
"Oh, come on Ames, that was so long ago," Sonic laughed, the kind of awkward laugh of someone seriously wanting to let their old cringy past die a quick and painless death. "I can barely even remember—"
"It was 'The Sonic Underground Experience,' right?" Tails, chomping on an overwhelmingly cheesy slice of pizza, casually tossed out the name, seemingly blind to Sonic's inner anguish.
Sonic instantly grieved his inability to physically melt into the floor. "Nah, I don't think that's right. I'd never come up with such a dumb-edgy name."
"No, no, I clearly remember you spending hours writing different names down until you found the perfect blend of 'cool' and…' totally rockin'—your exact words." Sonic gave Tails a strained kind of smile, with a mouth that said 'haha, isn't that nice,' but eyes that said 'stop.'
"Ha-ha, well it's such a perfect name that I don't really see the need to ever mention it again, right? I mean, no sense tampering with diamonds, am I right," Sonic tried to give an on-brand Cool Guy Laugh™ to play off of, but it just came out like an awkward giggle of a person desperate to regain any of his credibility.
"That'll do Sonic, that'll do," Knuckles patted Sonic on the back.
Sonic immediately deflated, slumping in his booth with a barely-disguised pout.
Already inhaling another slice of pizza, Knuckles finally turned the conversation in another direction—a direction that blessedly led away from a teenaged Sonic."So, how about you two? Blaze and Sliver, was it? You two go to GHU, too?"
"Um, it's Silver, actually," the sheepish hedgehog, who actually hadn't spoken until now, quietly piped up.
"Oh, oops. Sorry! I'm terrible with names. Took me months to learn Sonic's. " Knuckles chuckled off his mistake.
"No it didn't—"
"Anyways! You guys in school," He asked again, elbowing Sonic's arm.
"Yeah, we both go to GHU," Blaze cooly said, with a voice as calm and collected as a person twice her age. She had a surprisingly solid poker-face, not really leaning one way or the other in terms of emotion—a sharp contrast to both of her companions, who had their hearts practically embroidered on their sleeves. "I'm studying history, with a focus on Ancient Egypt. Silver here is studying Psychology."
"Oh cool," Tails chimed in, always eager to talk academics of any kind. "What's your favorite theory or area of study?"
Blaze smirked, a devious, knowing curl of her lips. "Well, I don't really know myself, but I sure know what Silver loves studying."
"Blaaaaaze, could you please not get into that now," Silver blushed, too embarrassed to look anyone across the table in the eyes. Amy and Blaze giggled at some inside joke unknown to the other half of the party
"Huh? What's so funny," Sonic, now munching on the last slice of the all too quickly rubber-like pizza.
"It's nothing," Amy laughed, playfully swatting Blaze on the shoulder. "Blaze has been needling Silver over this guy he's got a major crush on."
"Oh, really," Sonic asked absently. It was a little strange to him. The concept of crushes always felt somewhat...foreign to him. He had grown up hearing people talk about them, gushing about some new kid in their seventh period, but he couldn't say he'd ever had one. It just wasn't something that ever crossed his mind (something that the self-proclaimed 'ladies' man' Knuckles had balked at when he first met him).
A teenaged Sonic had laughed off all the prepubescent talk of sexuality and romance, taking the cliched thirteen-year-old response of calling it gross. And then he just...kept doing that until it became the norm.
His eyes flicked down to Amy and Blaze's hands linked so casually on the table. Seeing Amy's thumb absently brush the back of Blaze's palm, it felt just as distant of a concept as it did years ago.
But something about seeing them love so naturally made Sonic wonder…
"Yeah… it's stupid," Silver mumbled.
"They met when this guy was taking psych classes for his med major or whatever," Blaze supplied, seemingly ignoring Silver's want to curl in on himself. "And since then, Silver's been lovesick as hell for his brooding ass." She gave a teasing smile as Silver dodged a pinch to his cheek with a practiced ease from years of friendship. "It's kind of annoyingly cute."
"Huh…" Sonic thought for a second. Brooding? Med Major? Naaaaaaah, it can't be. "This guy… is he also a hedgehog? A little older? Black and red quills, with eyes that are permanently set to 'disdain'?"
"Uh… yeah, actually," Silver seemed a little surprised at Sonic's spot-on guess.
"You know this guy," Amy, also curious about Sonic's oddly specific details, wanted in on whatever info Sonic could give on Silver's mystery crush.
"Haha, weeelllll, I'd say know is a strong word." Sonic laughed a little at the idea of someone as nice and soft as this Silver guy liking someone as antisocial and cold as Shadow. "His names Shadow, right?"
Silver nodded, cheeks tinted pink with a subtle mixture of glee and embarrassment. "I sat next to him in my intro psych class. He was always so… stoic and pensive," Silver, lost in his memory, smiled to himself, seeming to forget his company.
Sonic was still a little shocked at this. Really? Shadow? That grump?
"Shadow, huh," Knuckles, looking about ready to grab another pizza, seemed equally amused by this development. "Well, Sonic, you said you were partnered up with the hunk, right? Why not give Silver some pointers?"
"Oh, please, no, that's not necessary," Silver spoke quickly, desperately trying to steer the conversation another direction before he combusted.
"Hey now," Blaze held up a hand, "You should take this opportunity, Silvy. You'll never get anywhere just pining for him behind an espresso machine."
"Yeah! C'mon, Sonic, dish! Tell us everything you can," Amy leaned in, ready to soak up every ounce that Sonic could give her. Silver, still too ashamed to look up, seemed at least a little interested, just as curious as Amy.
Sonic, always happy to help, welcomed the chance to do some good. Though, he didn't know how much help he could be. Romance was already a foreign concept to him, and each interaction he'd had with Shadow had been nuclear at best. "Hmm, he'd be a pretty hard nut to crack, I'll give you that much for free," Sonic crossed his arms, looking to the ceiling for insight.
In the past month, all Sonic could get from Shadow was insults and sneers, with the only exception being this evening's meeting. "Well, from what I can gather, he's super busy all the time, doesn't much care for nonsense, is suuuuuuuper cranky, but I think his bark is much worse than his bite—"
Sonic spilled every little mundane thing he seemed to pick-up on, with little regard for how relevant it could actually be to Silver's ambitions. Silver, wide-eyed in astonishment, leaned closer in, hanging onto every word that left Sonic's mouth, as though it were gospel.
"—he really has it out for slackers, I'm not sure he's had a good night's sleep in months—oh, and he drinks, uh, what's it called… oh, Old Fashioneds, that's it!" He finally stopped for a moment to take a sip of his drink, finally taking notice of everyone's dazed expressions. "What?"
"Taking notes, were you?" Amy laughed, delighted by Sonic's steadfast candid nature. "Does Silver have to worry about some competition?"
"What? Naaaaaaah, no way! Not in a million years!" Sonic laughed at the very idea of liking someone so hilariously edgy. "Even if I did crush on the guy, I can't imagine there's anyone on this earth that could get through to that grumpus. No offense, Silver."
"Uh, none taken," Silver awkwardly laughed, slightly intimidated by his worsening chances with Shadow.
"You sure about that, Sonic? You two were getting pretty personal that one time at the bar," Knuckles poked at Sonic, always enjoying the chance to tease him.
"Wait, what happened at the bar," Tails, who was absent for that heated exchange, asked the question that seemed to be on everyone else's mind.
"Nothing 'happened'! We got into a testy tipsy quarrel over nothing, the end." It didn't bother him, exactly. Being teased like this always came from a place of amusement, and he could roll with the punches. But he was fairly certain Shadow hated him, and it was uncomfortable to Sonic talking about him like this, behind his back. Don't need any more bad karma with Shadow. "Besides, not really into dudes, per se."
"Well, don't be too sure about that," Amy chuckled in Sonic's direction, giving him a dubious eye. "Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen you with any girls, anyway," Amy pondered aloud.
Sonic felt struck. He really didn't want to have this conversation tonight. Amy, thankfully, could read Sonic loud and clear. "And I could have sworn I was straight, until I met Blaze."
"Aw shucks," Blaze pulled Amy in closer, resting her arm at her waist.
"Ahhh, no, stop, my hearts gonna burst from all this cuteness," Knuckles grasped his chest and put a hand dramatically over his eyes, shielding himself from the pure love between the two. Amy stuck her tongue out at him as he scooted out of the booth, looking to Tails, "Wanna get some prizes, kiddo?"
"Sure," Tails hopped out to follow along. He paused, turning to Blaze and Amy, smiling, "I think you two make a great pair."
"Awww, thank you Tails," Amy returned an equally heartfelt smile to Tails.
"You know, they're probably gonna close soon, we should probably exchange our tickets as well, guys," Silver got out as well, holding onto their own winnings.
"Yeah, might as well clean-up," Amy got up along with everyone else.
"I got it!" Sonic hopped up, grabbing plates and cups, heading to the trash cans. "And hey, Silver! For real, I could try and help you out with Shadow, if you want. I see the guy pretty often."
"Oh, really," Silver beamed, genuinely happy at the offer. "You don't have to, but I'd, uh, appreciate it."
"Yeaaaah, of course! Any friend of Amy's is a friend of mine. Anything you wanna know about the guy, let me know and I'll find it out… maybe," Sonic held out a fist to Silver, who in turn gave an awkwardly weak fist bump back.
After spending their earnings on oversized plushies and dollar store candy, the whole gang loitered some more in the parking lot, uneager to end the evening just yet. Blaze and Knuckles talked about archeology stuff, Silver told Tails about his thesis project, and Sonic, unable to add anything of merit to any of those discussions, sat on the curb playing with his newly-purchased paddleball.
Taking a seat at his side, Amy decided to check in on him. "You alright? It's not like you to sit out like this."
"And miss out on this sick paddle ball action? Nah," Sonic joked continuing his ball-hitting crusade. He didn't want to admit the fact that he felt too intimidated to join in on the more academic and nuanced conversations. He'd been made a fool of enough for one night.
"Is that so?" Amy may have known there was more to his childish antics, though if she did, she chose not to push him on it.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, the tapping sound of the paddle ball punctuating each passing second. Sonic wanted to ask her the question that had been burning in his brain the past few hours, but hesitated, not wanting to possibly ruin a solid evening. So, he took a more roundabout direction.
"... Soooo, how'd you and Blaze meet?"
"Well, about around when I dropped out, I was restless—kept...wanting something, but I didn't know what. So, after a slightly tipsy impulse decision in the middle of the night, I downloaded a dating app."
Sonic blinked in surprise, but stayed silent. With her quiet, kind nature, Amy seemed like the kind for a more traditional, old-world kind of romance—a chance meeting, subtle flirting, love notes and letters and dates. Something about the quick, impersonal nature of dating apps didn't seem to fit Amy's style.
He glanced up at the new Amy he saw in front of him—years away from any version of her he had known.
Then again, maybe it just didn't fit his picture of Amy.
"Can't tell you exactly why," she continued, "but when it asked preferences I clicked both." She paused. "Maybe it was always there and I just ignored it—I don't know. And then, after weeks of ignoring messages and rejecting matches, I got a message from Blaze, and I don't know—something just...clicked. Like...she was it."
She let out a laugh in the quiet. "I dunno, maybe it's silly."
Sonic broke from his paddle ball-induced hypnosis. "It's not silly," he immediately corrected. "I think it's...sweet." Relationships had always escaped Sonic. Amy wasn't entirely off, he had never dated anyone. Wasn't his thing. He had plenty of love in his life—family, friends, track. Romance (the word felt weird, sticky, even now) had never really fit into the equation. Or, at least, he never cared enough to make room for it.
Amy smiled, soft and loving.
Sonic wrapped the string of the paddle ball around his finger, still fidgeting absently.
He gave a soft laugh, a breathy sound—a defense mechanism to defuse tension. "Probably sounds a bit stupid, but I didn't even know you were gay." The words rushed off his tongue before he gave them permission to.
Amy giggled. She had probably heard some variation of this exact thing a million times from a million different people—he knew how it had to sound. Once again, he admired her endless patience, not smacking him for sticking his proverbial foot in his literal mouth.
"Honestly, babe, me neither. But, y'know, life happens and you just kind of go along for the ride."
Sonic smiled up at Amy, a rush of nostalgia filling his chest to the brim, bittersweet and warm. "Who'd've ever thought the ride would end up here, huh Ames?"
Amy looked over at Blaze, her eyes soft as she watched her head tilt towards the sky in laughter. "Yeah," she said, almost too quiet to hear.
After the night threatened to stretch on into the next day and the chill of the wind got under their jackets, the two groups split for the night, with shared hugs and smiles and phone numbers for their newly-made friends. Sonic did intend to make good on his promise to Silver, boldly telling him he'd even flirt with him by proxy. Silver politely turned it down, though Blaze seemed all for it, already planning and strategizing like flirting was a heist and Shadow was their treasure hidden behind cliché security lasers.
Opting to let Tails have the front seat on their way home, Sonic stretched out on the faded leather of the backseat. Head against the cool window, his eyes followed the moon above as Knuckles' and Tails' sleepy conversations drifted in and out of his head—a white noise for his thoughts. Sonic wasn't one to look back, never wanting to waste time moving forward as fast as life would let him. But tonight had brought a literal blast from the past, the changes of the years personified in Amy. She was one of the few people who could see right through Sonic—really see him, despite his cool, easygoing persona. It was one of the few things that hadn't changed.
He felt small under her kind, knowing gaze, and he didn't like the things it pulled from him.
He caught his hazy reflection in the window as it flicked in and out between passing streetlights, trying to find the things that had changed about him.
He didn't find much.
