Chapter 17: Gala
Amy fidgeted nervously, green eyes darting back and forth. At her side, Rouge was smoothly talking to the mayor with the ease of a practised socialite, and Amy was doing her very best to pay attention to what they were saying, to pay attention lest one of them draw her into the discussion: but her attention was equally drawn to the two other figures in the ballroom. Metal was striding around the room, stopping occasionally to adjust and rearrange the many decorations on the tables and walls, all of which he had had a hand in creating. With the eye of a pernickety perfectionist, he was making the most minor of adjustments, casting the occasional sneer at what he found. His actions were proving to be incredibly distracting, but no more than those of Shadow, who was slowly following after Metal, each step silent and purposeful, his eyes thinned, his body tense, with the air of a coiled spring, ready to launch into action at any given moment.
Amy stopped walking, her mouth open, her eyes unblinking, as Metal suddenly turned around and took two long, brisk strides as though to cross the room, only to come to an abrupt halt as he suddenly found himself face-to-face with Shadow. The pair stood tall and stiff, glaring at each other. After a moment, as though perfectly in sync with each other, they started to slowly circle past each other, each eying the other over suspiciously. Once they had swapped sides with each other they once more stopped and stood tall, glaring at each other for a long, tense moment, before once again both moving in sync, turning from each other and both briskly striding in the opposite direction. Amy let out a small sigh, but was shortly stabbed by another jolt of panic when Rouge sharply called her name.
"The mayor is asking you a question, Amy," Rouge said tightly.
Amy glanced back forth between them as she approached them, closing the gap that had developed when she had stopped walking alongside them. As she tried to decide what would be worse – asking the mayor to repeat himself, admitting that she had not been listening, or ab-libbing, pretending that she had been following the conversation and launching into a reply that may or may not get her off the hook – she became aware of the sound of heavy footsteps crossing the dance-floor.
"Oh, Mister Mayor, this is Thistle, Amy's new partner," Rouge said to the mayor.
Amy turned her head as Metal stopped alongside her. He nodded his head to her and she returned the gesture: though she suddenly felt awkward that he was standing before the mayor inexplicably wearing just a bowtie.
"Amelia, I had no idea you were bringing one of your partners to the gala!" the mayor said cheerfully.
"Oh, uh, yeah!" Amy awkwardly replied. "This is my partner Meta-Thistle and he's totally coming to the gala with me on Friday!"
"Today," Rouge muttered.
"Today," Amy repeated. "Wait – today?"
Amy turned alarmed eyes to Rouge, who subtly nodded her head.
"The gala is tonight!" Amy said, turning her attention back to the mayor. "I knew that! I've been looking forward to the gala for so long, I couldn't possibly forget that it's tonight! Already! Just like that!"
Amy let out a small nervous laugh.
"Are you looking forward to the gala too, Mister Thistle?" the mayor asked Metal.
"He's a mute," Rouge informed the mayor. "But he is looking forward to the gala. Right, Amy?"
Amy looked up at Metal, the slightly scrunched, slightly confused, slightly oppressed look on his face doing little to soothe her nerves.
"Absolutely he is, Mister Mayor," she said to the mayor, forcing a smile.
"That's wonderful!" the mayor replied, beaming brightly. "There will be a place for you and Mister Thistle at my table, Amelia."
Amy wanted to protest that invitation, but also didn't want to seem rude. But, to her surprise, Rouge came to her rescue.
"Mister Mayor, that's an incredibly generous offer," the bat said smoothly. "But I'm afraid we'll have to decline. We already have a table booked with a party of our own, and it's a tradition of ours to always spend the gala together."
"Well of course, that's no problem, Miss Rouge!" the mayor replied.
"Let's talk about the stage," Rouge answered him. "And that chandelier: are those crystals or diamonds?"
As the major began explaining the mix of precious and semi-precious stones that decorated the chandelier, and Rouge's face lit up, the pair began once more walking away, moving towards the stage area at the head of the ballroom. Amy turned to Metal, and found that he was looking at her with the same twisted face he had been wearing when she had last looked his direction.
"What is it?" she whispered.
He moved his mouth a little, his eyebrows drawing down low over his eyes. He drew in a deep breath and then very carefully mouthed out one single word: "Amelia".
"That's my name," Amy answered him.
His head tilted faster and further than Amy had ever seen it do.
"Amy is short for Amelia," she explained. "My full name is Amelia Rose."
Metal's head straightened and he mouthed out "Amelia Rose", his eyes moving up and a thoughtful look appearing on his face.
"What?" Amy asked.
His eyes suddenly softened and a small, tight, smile appeared on his face.
"Oh, you think that's funny?" she snapped, putting her hands on her hips. "Amelia Rose happens to be a very beautiful name, I'll have you know!"
Metal's eyes met hers, but the smile didn't leave his face.
"I think I liked you better when you didn't know how to make faces," she said quietly.
His eyebrows lifted a little and his smile lifted at one corner of his mouth – and with that softened, smirking look on his face, he did look a little more like Sonic than usual. Although she knew that the moments where looked most like Sonic ought to be the moments she trusted him the most, Amy instead felt strangely uncomfortable. She realised then that she actually preferred Metal when he looked the least like Sonic. When he looked too similar to Sonic, she felt herself reminded too keenly that he was Metal Sonic, created to replicate, better and destroy Sonic.
"Don't look at me like that," she said softly.
She reached up a hand and touched her fingers to his mouth in an attempt to hide it from her view, but at the point of contact, his eyes grew wide and crossed over in an attempt to look down at her hand on his mouth. She hesitated, unsure if she should withdraw her hand or not. After a moment, Metal seemed to recover from his initial shock, his eyes relaxing a little and refocusing onto first her eyes, and then, she noticed, his eyes drifted to her lips. From the corner of her eye, she saw him bring up one of his hands, his fingers – even though covered by his leather gloves – fluttering in the air as they neared her lips.
"Not interrupting anything, am I?"
Amy's head snapped to one side, where she found Sonic suddenly standing over her, grinning at her slyly. A small squeaking noise behind her made her snap her head around to her other side, where she found Cream standing watching her with wide, glistening amber eyes, her mouth open wide, her hands balled into fists by her chin. Next to her, Tails was watching on with a misshapen mouth and uneven eyes that were shrunk with a look of terror and horror. Amy turned her attention back to Metal, finding her hand hovering in the space where his mouth had been, his head now turned, his eyes glowing and his teeth bared as he glared at Sonic. Sonic was still smirking in amusement, wearing that look he got when he was teasing someone.
"Aw, Mister Sonic spoiled the moment..." Cream said sadly.
Amy turned to her in alarm as she slumped down, the look of excitement on her face melting into one of disappointment.
"Moment?" Tails squeakily repeated. "What moment? There was no moment!"
He laughed nervously, turning his attention to Amy.
"R-right, Amy?" he asked. "There was no moment, right?"
Amy opened her mouth to answer him, but words failed her. She wanted to agree with him, to end the awkwardness of the moment, but she found herself unable to lie – she never had been able to lie around Sonic – and, honestly, she did think she and Metal had just been sharing some sort of "moment". As that realisation fully sank in and her face began to feel hot, she began to panic, looking about herself desperately for a distraction to end the tension. When she spotted Rouge and Knuckles standing with their fists clenched at their sides, glaring and pouting at each other, she latched onto it desperately.
"Oh no, look!" she said loudly and clumsily. "Rouge and Knuckles are fighting! I have to go stop them!"
Amy hurried away, practically flying across the dance-floor as she took long, leaping strides to get herself away from the others as quickly as possible. When she joined Rouge and Knuckles, she found that she actually didn't really care what they were arguing about – after all, they argued about a lot of things – but upon her arrival, they both immediately drew her into their argument regardless.
"Amy, will you please talk some sense into this knuckle-headed brute?" Rouge said, her eyes still on Knuckles as she spoke.
"Amy, will you please talk some sense into this air-headed witch?" Knuckles said, his eyes still on Rouge as he spoke.
"What are you guys fighting about this time?" Amy asked in exasperation.
"I've seen this big savage shatter the Master Emerald before," Rouge explained, her eyes never leaving Knuckles. "He's done it for the most stupid of reasons, but now that I want him to do it for the gala, to get the beautiful shards to enhance the chandelier here in the ballroom, he's refusing like the selfish troglodyte that he is!"
"Stop using big words to try to sound smart!" Knuckles argued back. "And how dare you ask me to shatter the Master Emerald just so you can have something shiny at your stupid party!"
"You're coming to my "stupid party" are you not, Knuckles?" Rouge argued.
"Yes I am, and I know the party doesn't need me to destroy the Master Emerald just for it to be good!"
"The chandelier is the main feature of this entire room, why are you sabotaging my efforts to make the gala perfect?"
"The main feature of the gala is all that pretty flowers and wicker crap Amy made!"
"Gee, thanks, Knuckles..." Amy grumbled.
"Nobody wants to look at all that rustic crap when they're dancing, they want to look at the gorgeous, shimmering, shining, chandelier!"
"And thank you too, Rouge..." Amy grumbled.
"You are so shallow!" Knuckles yelled, leaning in closer to Rouge.
"And you are so basic!" Rouge yelled back, leaning in closer to Knuckles.
"Would you two mind taking your awkward flirting elsewhere?"
Rouge and Knuckles instantly took a step back from each other, revealing Shadow standing on the other side of them, glaring back and forth between them.
"You're spoiling the atmosphere," he added.
"I'm not flirting with her!" Knuckles argued, waving a dismissive hand at Rouge.
"Honey, you couldn't handle me!" Rouge spat back at him, crossing her arms and glaring at him.
"Either put up, or shut up," Shadow warned.
"Wh-what do you mean by that?" Knuckles asked him in a small voice.
"You know exactly what I mean," Shadow sneered. "Even you aren't that dense!"
"I'm not dense!" Knuckles whimpered.
"Come on Shadow, I have a proposition for you," Rouge said to Shadow.
"I'm not gathering the Chaos Emeralds just so you can use them as decorations for this stupid gala," Shadow warned her.
"Walk with me," she said, walking away and beckoning him to follow her.
"Nothing you can say or do will change my mind," Shadow replied as he fell into step alongside her.
"Come on, Knuckles," Amy said to her friend. "Let's leave them be."
Knuckles turned around, but his eyes only landed on Amy momentarily before flicking to something beyond her.
"Oh, hey you guys!" he said.
Amy looked back over her shoulder to see Metal, Sonic, Tails and Cream approaching them.
"Nice tie," Knuckles added.
Metal gave one of those small smiles he had started using and tugged at the loops of his bowtie. He then signed something and Knuckles and Cream laughed, but Tails looked nervous.
"What did he just say?" Amy asked, turning to Knuckles.
"He said he's gonna teach us all how to dance the robot tomorrow night," Sonic said.
Amy sighed, but before she could scold Sonic for assuming that he could understand Metal's every thought, Knuckles spoke.
"No he didn't, Sonic!" the echidna said. "He just said he looks better than you do in a bowtie."
Sonic's face momentarily dropped and Amy quietly laughed into the palm of her hand.
"Mister Metal, did you see Amy's lovely dress she's going to wear tomorrow night?" Cream asked Metal.
He gave a single nod of his head.
"Oh yeah?" Knuckles asked.
"Rouge insisted I buy it," Amy said. "It was... Very expensive."
"Was it worth the money?" Knuckles asked her.
She started to answer him, but his purple eyes flicked upwards and refocused elsewhere. Her voice faded and she followed the direction of his gaze, finding Metal signing something. When he finished, Cream looked a little worried, Tails looked distraught and Knuckles looked a little confused.
"Hey, I know, why don't we all go to Charlie's for lunch!" Tails said loudly. "I'm buying!"
"I'm not gonna say no to an offer like that, buddy," Sonic answered him.
Amy looked at Cream, who still looked worried. She then shifted her attention to Tails, who was making small, nervous noises that were probably supposed to be a form of laughter. Finally, she turned to Knuckles, who looked like he was holding back an amused smirk.
"What did Metal just say, Knuckles?" she asked him.
"He said when he saw you with that expensive dress," Knuckles began. "It made him feel funny in his–"
"Try these canapés, Knuckles!" Tails yelled over the top of Knuckles's last words, cramming a handful of small samples he had grabbed from a nearby tray into Knuckles's face.
"What are you doing?" Knuckles complained, staggering back a step.
"They're so good, right?" Tails loudly replied. "Here, have some more!"
As Tails tried to force-feed Knuckles some more canapés, Amy turned her attention to Cream, who was looking up at Metal with a slight frown. Metal was glaring at Sonic, who was smiling at him again.
"Metal, I never knew you were such a dog!" Sonic said, elbowing Metal in the ribs.
Metal slapped Sonic's arm away and turned fully towards him, his eyes starting to glow intensely. Amy turned again to find Cream guiding Knuckles away by the arm as he choked on the food Tails had stuffed into his mouth. She turned her head to Tails, who smiled an almost painful smile.
"Metal said you look beautiful in your new dress," he said, in what was clearly a lie.
"Okay," Amy replied.
She turned back to Metal and Sonic, panic overtaking confusion as Metal poised clawed hands by Sonic's throat, the sound of the metallic tips of his fingers popping through the stitching she had spent so long on making her wail in alarm. Metal turned to her at the sound, the glow instantly dimming from his eyes and his hands relaxing, falling to his sides. He looked a little worried, almost guilty: Sonic was still grinning at him.
"Let's go home," Tails suggested. "We've all been so busy lately, it's the gala tonight, we should get some rest before then, right?"
"That sounds like a great idea," Amy agreed.
"Fantastic news, Amy."
Amy turned to find Rouge walking towards her, wearing one of those smiles she always dreaded.
"We were just about to head off actually, Rouge," Amy answered her.
"Why?" Rouge asked, stopping in front of her.
Amy looked over at Sonic and Metal again.
"It's been a long day," she said, turning back to Rouge. "And I really have to get home and start getting ready for the gala."
"Well, the gala isn't until later tonight, and you still have work to do today," Rouge said.
"I do?" Amy asked. "But I already finished the centrepieces for the mayor's lunch on Sunday."
"Next month is fairy month, the mayor wants you to design and decorate the garden."
"Wh-what?"
Rouge took a firm hold of Amy's upper arm and began marching her across the dance-floor.
"B-but next month is like Wednesday!" Amy protested. "A-and we have the gala tonight! That only leaves me Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday – four days – to do it!"
"You have today too, sweetie," Rouge replied with an air of authority.
"What exactly do I have to do?" Amy asked.
"Just design something fairy-themed and get it up and running by midnight on Tuesday."
"I-I don't want to be out working in the city hall garden until midnight..."
"I think you're going to need to."
Amy frowned at Rouge, expectant of an explanation: but Rouge stopped walking abruptly, and Amy realised that they were outside. She looked about herself, her heart sinking deeper and deeper into the pit of her stomach as she did so.
"Rouge, this garden is a mess!" she protested, her eyes roving over weeds taller than she was, cracked paving and a damaged and non-functioning water fountain.
"You've turned around your other project so quickly, the mayor is confident that you can do this," Rouge replied, smiling sweetly.
"It would take a whole army of trained gardeners to do this!" Amy protested.
Rouge smirked.
"Your little fox friend keeps a good stock of extra strong batteries, doesn't he?" she asked.
"Y-yes... B-but what does that have to do with...?"
Rouge turned to face Amy directly.
"So slot a couple of those batteries into your boyfriend and get to work," she said.
Rouge smiled and turned on her heel, walking back inside. Amy started to call her back, but already knew it was pointless. Once Rouge had disappeared from sight, Amy turned and slowly walked around the garden, unintentionally letting out small noises of despair for every monstrous weed, broken statue and wonky paving stone she passed. It was not exactly uncommon for Rouge to over-commit her to a hectic workload, but this really was an all-time level of insanity: it literally would take a whole team working round the clock to have any hope of turning the wild, rundown garden into anything remotely fairy-like by the given deadline.
"We'll help you, Amy."
Amy yelped and stumbled back a step, clutching a hand to her chest.
"Oh, sorry Amy, I didn't mean to startle you! But we're really excited about the fairy garden and we want to help you!"
Amy nodded, putting a hand onto Cream's shoulder.
"That would be great, Cream," she told her friend. "And I'll pay you, of course."
"We're happy just to help."
Amy looked up to see Vanilla smiling warmly at her.
"I know you'll think up something wonderful for this garden, and we would love to help make that a reality, for the sake of the people who will enjoy it!" she added.
"Thanks, Vanilla," Amy said.
Vanilla looked back over her shoulder at Vector, who was trying to coax a caterpillar onto one of his fingers.
"He's not afraid to get his hands dirty, and he's pretty strong and energetic," Vanilla said with a smile. "And Cream tells me your boyfriend is very strong."
Amy leaned to one side, her face twisting when she saw Metal crouched down near Vector, also apparently trying to encourage a caterpillar onto his finger.
"I mean, together, we could probably..." Amy began, her voice trailing off as she once more surveyed her bleak surroundings.
"Take today to think about it," Vanilla suggested gently. "Gather your thoughts and ideas, and we'll meet back here tomorrow morning after the gala – I'll bring food for us all – and if we all pitch in together, we'll get it done."
"That's honestly so kind of you, Vanilla," Amy whimpered.
"It's no problem at all!" Vanilla replied. "And besides, I'd like the opportunity to get to know Metal Sonic a little better. Cream has been talking about him so much."
Amy faltered a little upon hearing Vanilla express her desire to become acquainted with Metal Sonic, a small voice in her head pointing out that this was a concept she never could have imagined, let alone expected to encounter in reality.
"Okay, let's do it!" Amy said.
"Alright!" Vector said suddenly.
Amy assumed he was celebrating because of her declaration, but, looking over at him, he was standing next to Metal, who was still squatting in the long grass, frozen in place, the caterpillar he had been chasing finally crawling over the back of his glove-covered hand, and a yellow and black butterfly perching on the very tip of one of his ears.
"Oh, don't move, Mister Metal!" Cream said, hurrying over to him.
Metal remained frozen in place, but his eyes started to look increasingly fearful as Cream leaned over him and began telling Vector the exact sub-species of butterfly they were looking at. When the caterpillar crawled the length of his glove and began crawling up his arm, tickling its way through his fur and one of his eyes began to twitch, Amy decided to rescue him. With a smile, she moved over and carefully plucked the caterpillar from his arm. He let out a small, soft sigh and looked up at her, raising one thumb and putting on that small smile again. She returned the expression and raised one of her thumbs, before placing the caterpillar down amongst the grass.
"Come on everyone, let's give Amy some peace for now," Vanilla said, moving over to join them.
"Aw, but I'm having fun!" Cream complained.
"We'll see everyone again tonight, Cream!" Vector reminded her.
"I guess so," Cream said with a sigh.
"And we'll all see plenty of each other after that, when we're working in this garden," Vanilla added.
Cream nodded and stepped out of the grass, along with Vector. She said goodbye to Amy and Metal and left with her mother and Vector. Amy watched them go until they reached the back door of city hall, before turning back to Metal. He was still crouched low in the long grass, and, as she looked at him, he looked up in the direction of his left ear.
"Oh, right," Amy said softly.
She reached out a hand, running a finger up the inside of his ear, intent on bringing the tip of her finger up underneath the butterfly and lifting it from him: but just before she reached her goal he shivered and shook his head, throwing the butterfly into the air.
"Oh..." Amy said, straightening up and watching it fly away.
She turned her head back towards Metal, but found him suddenly standing immediately in front of her, giving her a look that was just ever so slightly accusatory, as his left ear intermittently twitched.
"Oh, sorry, did that tickle?" she asked.
His head tilted when she said the word "tickle", and it occurred to her that he probably had no idea what the word meant, since it would have had no impact on him as a robot, and it was unlikely Eggman would have thought to explain such a thing to him as he became an organic being.
"It means..." Amy began, touching a finger to one corner of her mouth as she tried to think of how best to explain the concept of tickling to a former robot.
After thinking for several seconds, Amy shrugged.
"It means this," she said.
Without really giving it too much thought, she took a step forwards and began tickling her fingers up and down Metal's sides. He instantly tensed and began twitching, eventually leaping back a step out of her reach. He glared at her, his eyes glowing slightly, an indignant look on his face: but that only made the situation all the more amusing to Amy, who started to laugh.
"Well, it looks like Prince Metal Sonic is ticklish!" she said.
The glow in Metal's eyes brightened a little and his indignation turned to anger: but Amy only found that even more amusing, and, laughing again, she leapt at him and began tickling him again. He tried to back away from her, but she kept pursuing him, the moment only ending when he grabbed a hand around one of her wrists an instant before she stepped onto a clump of grass, unintentionally wrapping it over one of his feet. His anger gave way to a momentary look of alarm before he fell backwards. Amy started to laugh, but her laughter broke into a scream as, his hand still clutching her wrist, he pulled her down with him. Amy landed with a grunt, placing her free hand onto the ground to push herself up a little, only then realising that she had landed literally lying on top of Metal, who was staring at her with wide eyes.
"Uh... Are you... Are you okay?" she asked him faintly.
To her surprise he shook his head.
"You're not okay?" she responded. "What's wrong?"
He blinked, but otherwise remained motionless: she was not even sure that he was breathing.
"We should probably go..." Amy said quietly.
When Metal did not respond – he seemed to have even stopped blinking – she leaned away from him and tried to lift herself up, but shortly found herself catching, as he was still clutching her wrist, his hand flat against the ground, effectively holding her in place.
"You have to let me go, Metal," she said, tugging gently at her restrained arm. "Otherwise I can't get off you."
She was smiling when she spoke, but her smile vanished when he reached up his free hand and grabbed her other wrist, pulling it down to the ground at his other side.
"Wh-what are you doing?" she asked.
He said nothing – not that he could – and again all he did do was blink. Amy sank a little lower, the tip of her nose briefly brushing against the tip of his nose. He inhaled sharply and audibly at the contact, and Amy felt her face start to flush.
"We have to go," she said hurriedly.
She tugged her wrists from him and he made no attempt to resist her, allowing her to quickly scramble to her feet. She began brushing grass and petals from her clothing and quills as Metal rose to his feet. As she worried over small strands of grass about her person, Metal simply shook himself off like a wet dog. The air around him blurred with dandelion seeds until the air finally carried them away.
"Let's go," Amy said to him.
She didn't wait to see if he was following her as she turned and moved briskly back across the garden, through city hall and out onto the street beyond. She found Tails there, walking Sonic around what could best be described as Tails's version of a stretched limousine.
"And you made this totally out of parts you found?" Sonic asked him.
"Yeah, isn't it awesome?" Tails cheerfully replied.
Amy glanced at the two mismatched wheels nearest the kerb before turning to Sonic, watching as he smiled – despite the pained look in his eyes.
"Yeah buddy," he said, patting Tails on the shoulder. "It's awesome."
"Oh, Amy, I made this to take us to the gala tonight, what do you think?" Tails called over to Amy as he noticed her.
"It's amazing, Tails!" she lied, smiling for his benefit, the look of pure joy on his face making the lie worth the effort.
"Let's go home," Sonic said.
Amy nodded. Tails hurried up to the driver's side as Knuckles called out "shot-gun" and leapt into the passenger side.
"Knuckles, don't you want to ride in the back?" Tails asked him as he hovered outside the driver's seat. "That's where the snacks are and the big luxury seats."
"I called it first!" Knuckles replied.
Tails pouted but got into the car and closed the door. Amy turned to see Metal joining her and gave him a small smile, pointing at the car. Sonic opened the back door and indicated for Amy to go ahead of him, which she duly did without thought: it wasn't until she sat down by the furthest window and Sonic sat down at her side that she started to realise her mistake. Sonic grabbed Metal's arm and pulled him down on his other side, by the opposite window.
"Tonight's gonna be awesome," Sonic said, stretching his arms above his head. "Right guys?"
As he lowered his arms, one landing around Amy's shoulders and the other around Metal's, Amy silently wished the ground would open up and swallow her, removing her from the situation entirely. From the corner of her eye, she saw a red light illuminate.
"I love you too, buddy," Sonic said with a grin as Metal continued to glare violently at him.
"Oh no..." Amy groaned, burying her face into her hands. "This gala is going to be awful..."
Next Chapter: Rouge throws Amy another curveball at the gala, and Sonic is on his worst behaviour for most of the night. Amy reflects that Metal's behaviour has improved since he came to live with her, and when he gets his chance to prove his dancing skills she starts to wonder if maybe she thinks of him as more than just a friend. Chapter 18: Dance