Chapter 2- Bonding

"I'm going to go talk with Sammy and some other people, I'll just take the train back home if I can't find you later, okay?" Amy asked me while pointing at a small group of people that appeared to be waiting for her.

"What train?" I asked, but Amy was already out the door.

"It was built about a year ago," said Sonic, coming up behind me and grabbing my arm. "When Knothole became the 'not so hidden' city."

"Ah, I see." I didn't know what else to say.

He linked arms with me in a friendly manner and led me outside.

"So," he started, "how's your running game been lately?"

"No, I don't feel like racing you today Sonic."

He pouted. "How'd you know?"

"Let's just say you're still as predictable as always," I replied, grinning at the look on his face.

"Predictable?" he asked skeptically. "Ha, go tell Sally that one for me."

I frowned. "Shouldn't she know you better than me? I mean…" I trailed off. They were supposed to be really close.

"You're right. She should. But she doesn't. I'd like to know why things changed…was it me?" he thought out loud, looking skywards.

"I couldn't tell you, I just got back, missed out on all the action."

He looked back down at me, frowning. "Oh, you'll get plenty, and believe me, you won't want it when you see just how suicidal her missions have become."

I smiled, but furrowed my eyebrows. "I thought you live for that kind of thing?"

He smirked. "I do. I'm just talking about all the other people who can't handle it, you'll see…"

I pretended to look appalled, pulling my body away from his, yet keeping our arms linked together. "Wait, are you saying I can't keep up with you?"

"Maybe," he grinned toothily.

"Fine, I don't care. You're going to be the one that's seeing." I stuck my tongue out at him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said, leaning in and snapping his teeth together, making me pull it back into my mouth. "I bite."

"I know," I said, recalling being bit by him before. It was rather painful.

We walked past Amy's old hut, which looked uninhabited, and I saw that Sonic looked hesitant.

"What?" I said.

He grinned half-heartedly. "Stop doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Reading me," he replied.

"Well I just noticed-"

"I know," he cut me off. "I was just wondering, I mean, does Amy still…?"

"Want to rape you? Or like you?"

He grinned at my first response. "Either?"

"Rape…maybe. Like you…I really don't know, you'd have to ask her yourself. But you definitely don't have to worry about her stalking you, she's not like that anymore," I finished, grinning.

He sighed, maybe in relief, but I couldn't be sure. "Well that's good news."

"So," he said so suddenly that I jumped slightly, "How's your love life been going?"

I thought for a moment. How had it been going? One year relationships followed by uncountable one-night stands. Was that good…?

"Good," I said, "And you?"

"Didn't you listen to me earlier," he said, his cocky smirk once again plastered on his face, "I told you, I'm a player. You should be asking me how my sex life is."

I rolled my eyes, but when he continued to look pointedly at me I responded, "So, how's your sex life been going," in a dangerously flat tone.

He smirked again, "Very well, in fact I just had it last-"

"Sonic," I cut him off, "Too much information!"

He didn't reply for a moment, just grinned.

"I had it last-"

"Sonic!" I whined, smacking his arm.

"Harder," he moaned, shutting his eyes. I hoped he'd walk into the nearest tree but had no such luck.

"I'll never be able to take you anywhere will I?" I said, grinning at him.

"Yes you will," he smirked, grabbing my arm and pulling me closer. "In fact, let's go somewhere now."

I tried to struggle out of his grip, but that only made him wrap his arm around my waist and hold on tighter. I stopped moving.

"Why do you have to be so difficult?" he asked me, smirking.

"Maybe because you're choking me, I dunno…"

His expression didn't change. "You wouldn't be talking if I were choking you, genius."

I scowled lightly at him. "Please let me go," I said after a few seconds, making a puppy face at him.

"Alright, fine, but…" he said, "I have to tell you a secret first."

I rolled my eyes. Probably something stupid. He leaned in closely, as if to whisper into my ear, but all of the sudden his tongue darted out and licked almost the entire part of the right side of my face.

I ripped myself from his grip and darted a good distance away and wiped my face with my hand.

"Sonic, that's gross," I whined. He was laughing hysterically, at my facial expression, no doubt.

"I wish I had a camera," he gasped out after about a minute of laughing. I scowled at him.

"Aww, you know I'm playing with you," he said after I refused to let him touch me. He grabbed me in a hug and I couldn't do anything but just turn my head away. He looked at me for a moment before pushing me away.

He spun around, grinning and said, "The hell with you." And then he walked off.

I just sat there looking at his retreating form for a moment.

"Oh come on, I thought you wanted to go somewhere," I whined from the ground.

He stopped walking and turned around. "So you will take me out?"

"I'm not taking you anywhere after you knocked me down," I pouted.

He smirked and covered the last few feet in between us. "Fair enough." He offered a hand to help me up, and I grabbed it. I stood up and began brushing dirt off the back of my pants.

"Need help there?" drawled Sonic, leaning against a large maple.

I paused momentarily and responded, "Don't even think about it."

He rolled his eyes. "Don't take everything I say to heart, I'm just playing."

I frowned. "I know."

He looked at me evenly for a moment. After quite a long silence, he pushed himself off of the tree and said, "So, where do you want to go?"

I thought for a moment. "I really don't know."

He grinned and said, "Well that really doesn't help me much."

I rolled my eyes dramatically. "Surprise me, then."

He smirked devilishly, making me wonder if I should have said that. "C'mon." He started off towards what I guessed was the train station. I caught up along side with his long strides, and noticed he looked rather dazed, until he caught me looking at him. Then he grinned and winked.

I rolled my eyes again.

"So I saw that dirty look Knux threw at you earlier," he started off. "He's probably never going to trust you, you know."

"Not like it's my fault, I mean, I didn't send me to go steal the three chaos emeralds off the island…" I replied, remembering my first mission as a freedom fighter almost six years ago.

"Never said it was, now did I?"

I was about to reply when I noticed something glimmering in his mouth.

"Sonic," I said, still looking at it, "Did you…did you get your tongue pierced?"

He grinned, as if remembering it. "Yeah, it was a while back. I just felt like doing something crazy."

I smiled. "You do something crazy everyday."

"I do. Gotta make the most of life, nobody lives it forever."

I nodded in response, putting my attention back to where I was going, and noticed we were walking back towards the mess hall. A few people where outside of it in small groups of three to five people, chatting lively.

As we got closer I heard two loud female voices begin to argue. Sonic frowned.

"It gets worse every day…" he mumbled. I felt rather bad for him.

"So," I said, re-linking arms with him, "where are we going?"

He grinned down at me. "I thought you wanted a surprise."

When I didn't reply he shrugged, making me grin as well. I noticed that Mina and Sally had spotted us, and were marching over to cut us off.

"Sonic, I need to talk to you," said Sally stiffly, coming to an abrupt, sharp stop in front of us.

"Then talk," he said silkily, intertwining his fingers with mine. This didn't go unnoticed by the pair in opposite me.

"I meant," she practically growled, "alone."

"Well can't it wait?" he said in the same silky voice.

"This is important. Much more than walking aimlessly around Knothole, I'm sure."

"Well I promised the lady a dinner," he said, indicating me with a bump of his shoulder. I blushed, not having been called a lady in a long time.

Sally glared at me. I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to re-ignite our dislike for each other on the very first day of my arrival.

"Sonic," piped a lighter, smaller voice, "can't we just get this over with? Now?" It was Mina, and she was looking up at Sonic under long lavender lashes with big green puppy eyes. It was something I thought I might not even be able to say no to.

I looked around from the begging Mina, to the glaring Sally, to Sonic, who didn't look all to happy about the situation, and said rather quietly, "Sonic, you can go with them if you want, it's cool."

He frowned. "It's not cool, not if they can't say it in front of you."

Sally and Mina glared at each other for a moment, before seemingly coming to an unspoken agreement.

"Fine," they both said in harsh unison.

"We were wondering-," started Sally.

"Where we should have the fall festival this year," quickly cut in Mina. "I mean, we've been arguing over it for like the past week, and we thought your opinion might, well…you know?"

Sonic looked highly confused and said, "Umm…I don't care?"

"This isn't abo-" started Sally again, only to be rudely interjected by Mina again.

"Thanks," she said in an upbeat voice, like what he said was the secret to life, "That helps us so much, doesn't it Sally?" she continued, grabbing Sally by the arm and pulling her away, smiling at the two of us. "Have a nice night!" she called as she dragged Sally into the mess hall, slamming the door behind her.

I blinked. "Well that was a load of bullshit if I ever saw one," I said as we continued walking, also noticing that Sonic unlaced his fingers from mine.

"You'd think they'd take the hint," he murmured, looking off distantly, obviously thinking about something.

We walked in silence until we arrived at the station, which was only about two minutes from the mess hall, but it somehow felt much longer. As we went to get our tickets, I pulled a thick wad of Mobians from my back pocket and began to count out twenty-two of them.

"Don't," said Sonic, shoving the money for both of us underneath the glass, "I'm paying, I'm taking you out."

"But-" I started.

"Don't worry," he grinned, "You'll get to pay next time."

I grinned back, "Alright."

"Two tickets to Station Square," said the girl behind the glass. She looked rather young, younger than the both of us at least. "Have a nice day." She slid the tickets out and spoke into the microphone, "Can I help the next person?"

We boarded the train and waited a few minutes for it to take off.

"So," said Sonic, "Do you know where you want to go yet?"

"You know," I said, looking skywards in thought, "I think I do."

"And where would that be?"

"The beach," I said with a grin.

"The beach?" he replied in a rather high pitched voice.

"Yes the beach."

"Why!"

"Why not?" I replied, biting back the intense desire to laugh. "You know, I'm going to teach you something today."

"What? Oh, no. Nooooooooo. Nuhnuhnuhnuhuhno. I don't want to be taught anything. Nothing at all."

"I don't care. A word of wisdom, don't make me do it the hard way."

He looked at me wide eyed. "You're going to drown me today aren't you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Stop being such a damned baby, I'd never let you drown. What would Mina and Sally fight over if that happened?"

"Where we should have the fall festival," said Sonic with a half smile, the color returning to his face.

I grinned. Acceptance is the first step to recovery.

"I don't think I can, I don't have anything to wea-" he stopped short as I pulled him in to a large overpriced department store, filled with swimwear.

"Okay," he gulped, "Let me look for something."

We both parted ways, I went to the women's section, and he to the men's, but I made sure I could see him clearly, because I knew he'd run off if I gave him the chance. I searched through the racks for a while, surprised to find that Sonic was a pretty picky shopper, and came up with three different bikinis that I liked, but wasn't quite sure and would try them on.

I started over to where Sonic was, and saw that he also had some that I supposed he could decide over.

"Hey," he said not looking up, "Which one?"

I looked at his choices and noted he had good taste. "Not that one, you'll end up getting arrested because it blends right in with your fur." I stopped and thought for a minute or two. "Hmm…that one."

He grinned. "I was hoping you'd pick those. What about you?" he said, indicating the bathing suits I held in my arms.

"I'm going to try them on, you have to tell me what looks good." I walked around the corner of the dressing room without waiting for a response from him, and set to changing.

After a few minutes I walked outside and said, "I don't know, the tops a bit small."

He grinned. "I like it."

I rolled my eyes. "You would." I headed back into the dressing room and repeated the process again.

"Well?" I said to him, and felt his eyes rake my body. I was sure he was overly enjoying this, but I figured I might as well let him, because he certainly wouldn't enjoy the swimming part.

"I like it," he said after a moment.

"Really?" I said looking into one of the big full sized mirrors. "You sure it doesn't make me look fat?"

He rolled his eyes and leaned onto the wall. "Shut up.

I rolled mine as well and headed into the dressing room to change into the last one.

Sonic's eyes lit up when he saw me. "Did you forget to put something on…?" he said, staring.

"See, I knew it was too dark," I said, trying to show him that I was wearing something.

He grinned. "Maybe you should take your own advice."

"Maybe." I slinked back into the room deciding to get the red one. After dressing, I came out with the one I wanted.

"Aww," said Sonic smirking, "You didn't get the one I liked the best."

"Sonic, it didn't cover me." I said rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, that's why I liked it," he replied, placing his trunks on the counter.

"I know."

" Sixty-three mobians please," piped the lady behind the counter.

Sonic handed her the money and told her to keep the change and waited on me to finish purchasing my items.

We headed out the door towards the coast, stopping momentarily at my house to change…

"I can't do this, I really, really can't."

I growled softly. "Sonic, you're acting like a five year old, please, at least get in the shallow end. I could have taken you out to the actual sea you know."

He looked at me. "What don't you understand about the words 'I can't'?"

I strode over to him, rubbing his back lightly in an attempt to calm him down. "You can," I said softly, "All you need is a little push." And with that I pushed him forward into the deep end.

I looked under the water, feeling kind of bad that I shoved him in like that, and calmly removed the ladder to get out of the water from the side of the pool. I was determined.

I heard him break the surface and saw the look on his face. He looked ready to kill.

"Are you happy now?" he practically snarled.

I smirked. "Kind of. Look, you're treading water."

He looked down rather surprised at himself. "How…?"

"I've just taught you how to swim," I said proudly.

He frowned. "What's so fun about it? I mean, I really don't understand the point."

I shrugged before plunging into the water.

He just looked at me. I looked questioningly back at him. "What?" I said after a few moments silence. All of the sudden he lunged forward and dunked me under the water. I swam back up and gagged on water.

"What was that for?" I said, annoyed.

"For pushing me in," he replied, the playful look in his eyes once again.

I frowned. "What do I get for teaching you to swim?"

He leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. "You don't deserve that though," he said pulling away.

"What? Why not?" I demanded.

"I taught myself."

I sighed and looked away, rolling my eyes. He splashed me, so I splashed back. We kept at it and were beginning to get dirty looks from people tanning by the poolside.

I heard something faintly. "Sonic," I said, "is that your cell phone?"

He stopped and listened for a moment. "Yeah it is. How'd you hear it over us?" he said, pulling himself over the edge of the pool, as I had removed the ladder.

I leaned on the edge of the pool looking at him as he answered.

"Hello?" he said. Pause. "Yes…no…I told you I have things to do." He paused and looked at me. "Yeah she is. Is that a problem?" Pause again. "Oh so that's what you wouldn't talk about in front of her…You didn't want her to be what? Why would she!"

He went on, not sounding very happy at all. After many minutes of arguing he said, "Well-you know what, I've got to go, she's been waiting on me and I've got another call. Yeah, whatever." He pressed the button on his phone rather harder than necessary, then pressed another and said, "What?"

That's when I heard my phone going off. I jumped out of the pool and said, "Hey!"

"Hey, what's up?"

"Well not much I just taught Sonic how to swim…"

She laughed. "How on earth…?"

"Threw him in."

"Aww, that's not nice," she said. "Anyways, Tails wanted to see you so I said he could stay the night, I mean you don't care right?"

"No, cool, I love that kid," I replied. "Wonder if anyone ever found out that we always used to take him on missions with us…?"

"Oh alright, are you still with Sonic?"

"Yeah, he's right here. Why?"

"Why don't you just ask him to stay with us, we just order a ton of food, I'd be fun," she said, giggling at something.

"What?" I asked.

She continued to laugh, "He won't stop throwing popcorn down my shirt…"

"Oh for heavens sake, goodbye." I hung up on her, looking up to see Sonic looking at me questioningly.

"It was Amy, she said Tail's is crashing at our place and they ordered a lot of food, and she told me to ask if you wanted to as well."

"Oh, yeah sure, sounds cool."

I looked at him, wondering if I dared to ask whom it was that he was talking to from the second call.

"It was Knuckles. He said he needed to talk…? I don't really know what it was about but he said he was coming here with Vector to pick us up and we could find somewhere private to discuss, so now I figure we'll just take him up the penthouse with us, if it's cool with you?"

"I don't care, they can stay to, as long as he keeps his fat mouth shut," I replied, as I faintly heard music blaring. I grabbed my skirt and tank top and threw them on and listened as the music got louder.

"Ugh," said Sonic. "I hate rap. And what is it with you people and your hummers?"

I laughed. "They're nice," I said. "Why, you don't like them?"

"Nah. I'm more of a corvette guy."

I frowned at my now extremely curly hair, which became this way every time I got it wet. The music grew even louder and I recognized the song.

"Ugh," Sonic repeated.

I rolled my eyes. "It's a good song."

"It really isn't," he argued as a metallic orange hummer pulled up behind me.

"Yes it-"

He laughed and cut me off, "Just get in the car."

"Fine," I huffed, "I'm not talking to you." I then I got in and closed the door in his face. He opened it.

"Move over," he said, and shoved me across the car. I gaped at him and said, "That wasn't nice."

"Hey Knux, Vec," he said, ignoring me. He shut the door and we sped off.

"So…where are we going?" asked Knuckles.

"This one's place," he said pointing at me.

"And where would that be?"

"Make a right here," I instructed in a small voice. I guess I was still afraid of him in a way. Sonic seemed to notice this as well and raised his eyebrows while smirking. I scowled.

"Shut up," I muttered darkly.

He rolled his eyes and leaned back, putting his feet up.

"What did I tell you about that, punk," said Vector, interrupting Knuckles and turning around to look at Sonic.

I rolled my eyes. "Not again…Sonic put your feet down."

He looked at me for a moment, then complied.

"Thank you," I said annoyed. "Left here and then under there, they'll take your car."

He looked at me through the rear view mirror with a threatening face and I smiled sarcastically back at him until he dropped his gaze and turned towards the penthouses.

Yeah, that's chapter two...be nice and review guys. kthanks