Charmy & Amy
Requested by Missplayer30
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Espio and Vector had left him sitting on a stack of crates when they went off to go talk to Knuckles. They said they would be back for him, later, as soon as they knew more. Later. Now hours had passed and Charmy's chest felt tight and awful, he had never felt so alone yet the room was too crowded – so many survivors – and he'd started thinking that… that what if he'll be all on his own one day? What if Espio and Vector just doesn't return-
What if one day the news going around won't be of Sonic's defeat, but theirs?
He wants to go look for them so badly, he swears his wings are actually twitching – but there's too many corridors and too much people. He'd never find them. And thinking that, then he just sits still and small on that crate, feeling too heavy and sad to move an inch more.
Sonic's gone. Tails is gone. Everyone he knows are somewhere out there but he doesn't know where – and he can't reach any of them.
How can they ever win this?
A sob bursts out of him. And then another, and another, until he's rubbing furiously at his eyes, face wet and nose runny, eyes red and still dripping. He misses it all. The world before the war – when trees were green and people were happy, and you could sleep in and watch morning cartoons and eat fruit loops for breakfast, with too much chocolate milk.
He sobs again, eyes scrunching shut. And then they promptly fly open again as a hand lands on his shoulder. He turns quickly and stares wide-eyed at – at Amy. Amy? –yeah, it has to be Amy. Same dress, same hairstyle, same burning green eyes like she's just about to punch someone in the face. And then those burning eyes soften, and she wraps him in a careful hug. Like a sister – like a friend – Charmy so badly needs right now.
He clings to her and cries and cries, and Amy lets him do that for a while. He doesn't know how long. But after a while, anyway, she lets him go, steps back a bit and says, "It's okay. Or well, it isn't, but it could be worse. So chin up, Charmy!" –which doesn't help that much, but her shoulder is completely wet because of his crying so the very least he could do is stop. (His eyes feel completely wrung out) (His everything feels completely wrung out)
"Y-yeah." He manages to say. And then he wants to ask something, but there's too much. Where are- How are- When-
D'you think we can win this war?
"I wish I c-could," Charmy begins, "Could go back to before and stop all this." A sniffle escapes him. "I wish I had a Time Box, and then I could rewind time, and we'd all be back home and then Sonic-"
A shadow goes over Amy's face, and she says briskly, "But we can't. It's this or nothing – all we have is now."
-Charmy must've looked as stricken as he felt, because Amy's expression gets a bit softer and she puts a hand on his shoulder, comforting.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I wish-" her voice gets wobbly and she doesn't finish her sentence. She starts a new one: "We can still fight. You shouldn't think of what-ifs – they are dumb and foolish and will drive you mad. So don't think about those, okay?"
She looks at him like they're making a promise. "I won't," Charmy says. And feels… just a bit better.
Amy grins. "Good. Now do you want to join the resistance? Espio says you're too young, but-?"
"I want to join." Charmy says. With more conviction he thought he could have. "Wherever my friends go, I'll go too." Because the Chaotix are his family. And he's going to stand with them, even if it's scary and dangerous and they all could die.
"Great!" Amy exclaims. She has a smile, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes. Charmy wipes at his own, and then Amy offers him a hand. "C'mon. Let's get you settled with the rest of us lot-" she helps him up, and he somehow gets his wings back into business. "Let's get you settled," Amy says, leading the way. "And then we can start working on fixing this mess. Without any Time boxes…
"We'll just have to do this on our own."
A/N: finally got Forces so that I could type this up
