Four on the Floor
Do You Feel Like a Man?

Disclaimer: You know the drill, I own nothing.

"Sonic!" She squealed at the nonchalant, green-eyed hedgehog's presence in her doorway. Shadow sighed in relief, another moment with Rouge's talking about her insane roller-coaster romance without his other half may have resulted in homicide. Sonic's expression showed that he was about as interested in this meeting as Shadow was. His green eyes lit up a little when he saw his mate already sitting quietly on the couch, but said nothing.

"So we've decided, or I have, Shadow didn't give me much input... that you should definitely talk to Tails about Amy!" Sonic cocked an eye ridge, then looked over to Shadow, who mouthed the words, I never said anything. Sonic's eyelids came down over his eyes, the way someone does when he or she is insanely displeased with something, or bored.

He fidgeted a bit, rocked back and forth on his heels, then proceeded to bite his lower lip, the three customary things Sonic did when he was trying to find a way out of something, Shadow would know. "Hm?" He mumbled, as if he had just heard Rouge, almost a minute later. "Why can't you do that?"

The black hedgehog quickly winced, he was glad he wasn't in this situation, but he felt a great deal of pity for Sonic, "Because! I'm talking to Amy, duh!" She thumped his forehead, which caused him to back away from her a few feet, putting him nearly at the door as they hadn't walked in very far.

The red-eyed hedgehog was going to pipe up and ask why they couldn't reverse it, but before he said it he realized what a dumb thing it would be to say, so he bit his tongue. "Why can't we let them figure this out themselves?" Rouge whirled to him, giving him a scornful look, causing him to recoil again. He didn't get the affairs of girls at all.

"That's not what I do. I don't let things fall into place, I put them into place." Sonic mumbled something under his breath, and she turned back to him, "What was that?" The blue hedgehog shook his head, signaling it was something he was going to definitely regret repeating to Rouge.

The bat woman put her hands on her hips and pouted her lips again, moving them over to the left side of her face. "Sorry, but this isn't really our forte." Sonic consoled, Shadow would have to remember to think him for using the term 'our' in that sentence.

"Of course not. But you're two of the only people that could get through to Tails, and I now Knuckles won't do it."

"Why does he get to be exempt and not us?" Shadow rose to his feet, his intention being to make some kind of a retreat when the next opportunity arose.

"Because you're closer to Tails." She rolled her eyes and didn't even seem to notice that the darker hedgehog had stood.

"I'm not..." He knew this was a mistake before he got to the n of not, but he couldn't stop or else she'd be questioning him on whether he was saying he was madly in love with Amy and was insanely jealous.

"Sonic is though!" Sonic squirmed a little a shot Shadow a hot glance for doing that to him. Shadow just smiled sympathetically. "I'm not asking you to do anything, but help me convince Sonic to do something! You said you agreed they'd be cute together!"

"What!" Shadow was taken aback, "I never said anything like that! I said that it would be interesting!" He protested, his motions signaling he was definitely not pleased with the proceedings.

"Oh, right... you just want Amy to get a boyfriend so she'll stop hanging on yours." Shadow stood back, his face tilting in a skeptical expression. This was somewhat true, but he was not about to admit it. He heard Sonic chuckle a little bit, and his cheeks flushed.

Through clenched teeth, and from the back of his throat he proceeded to refrain from screaming at Rouge, "Whatever." His voice was icy cold, it didn't have much of an effect since Rouge was used to hearing that kind of tone from him, especially since she loved to embarrass him in front of his blue mate.

Rouge turned to Sonic, a look of pleading growing in her eyes, he winced away from it, he hated that look from girls. "Sonic, just talk to him... you don't have to even convince him, not this time, anyway-..."

"What!" Sonic jumped, "This time? Even if I agreed to do it now there would be another time, hell no!"

This prompted a laugh from the embarrassed black hedgehog, "Okay look, me and Faker will try and talk to the fox, once. And if that doesn't work, you're on your own." Rouge turned again, Sonic was wondering if she was getting dizzy, and threw her arms around Shadow.

"Thank you so much!"

---

They walked home, close to each other, a sigh escaped Sonic, "Why did you have to agree to do that? I have no idea what to say to Tails." Shadow just smiled and threw his arm around his mate.

"Don't worry, I'm better at it than you... you should know that, I'll do most of the talking." Sonic looked at him somewhat skeptically, another look Shadow thought was absolutely adorable, Shadow was beginning to think maybe he just thought he was constantly that.

"You better." The black hedgehog smirked and nodded his head in agreement. He didn't know exactly what he intended to say to Tails, but it wasn't like Rouge had given them a deadline, so he had a while to plan it out before he barged into the fox's house and told him to go propose to Amy Rose this instant, though that might work if he said it demandingly enough. Come what may and hell to pay, he was going to get Amy Rose off his boyfriend and out of his life.

As much as Shadow enjoyed walking with Sonic, both of them preferred running, so that's always what ended up happening when they were just getting intimate, it drove Shadow as crazy as anything Sonic did. He loved to run, but he loved Sonic thousands of times more. After arriving back at their small apartment, and Sonic proudly boasting his beating Shadow. The darker hedgehog blamed it on some hole or another. The worst surprise either of them could have expect happened, when Sonic opened the door. There sat Amy, Amy! The bane of Shadow's very existence, the green-eyed, pink-haired hedgehog that still made his skin crawl when Sonic was around. "Amy!" Sonic shrieked for him.

"What the hell are you doing here!" Shadow's voice burst into an angry, ice-stricken, furious yell. The pink hedgehog was struck with Shadow's comment more than Sonic's, because the blue hedgehog's just seemed like an unwanted surprise, which was what she expect. Shadow's sounded the devil was standing there in his very house.

"I, um, came by to talk to you guys..." She suddenly got nervous and the palms of her hands began to sweat. "About Tails..." Shadow's angry expression lightened, and a neutral expression came across his face, she almost thought he seemed pleased. Lately, Shadow had seemed to have a particular problem with her around Sonic, protectiveness of what was rightfully his, she was sure, and that burned like hell to know he was inclined to it. Not that it was needed, Sonic barely knew she was alive as of late.

"Tails?" Sonic's ears perked up as much as Shadow's expression lightened. "What about him?" Sonic had a teasing, curious? Amy couldn't figure it out, he had a tone to his voice, interested, was what it was.

"He's been... acting, oddly... lately. Nice. But odd." She looked away over at a picture of, no... it wasn't a picture just a frame, "Um, may I ask... why you have a frame with no picture in it on your wall?"

"What?" Shadow seemed a little confused at this comment, it was so abrupt and off-topic, "Oh... that..."

"We're guys, we don't exactly take a lot of pictures..." Sonic explained quickly. Amy smiled at the explanation, and nodded her head, "But about Tails. Odd how?"

"Nervous, maybe?" She looked at Shadow to see his reaction, knowing it would be smug as anything, since she knew exactly why Tails had been acting the way he had, she had come here merely to see if she could get a jealous reaction out of Sonic, which was a complete failure, like she knew it would be.

"Oh, really? A guy acting nervous. How completely unreadable." A smirk came across his formerly irritated face. "Why did you really come here, Amy? To really ask that, you're a girl, you know."

"No, no I really don't." She blushed, it was obvious Shadow knew why she was there, right now, she was sure he wanted to snap her neck as badly as she wanted to snap his. Sonic, however, was completely oblivious.

"He likes you? Duh!" Sonic chimed it, and shooed away any remaining hopes that he might care the slightest that Tails was interested in her. He crossed his arms over his chest, and seemed to be thinking, Shadow was sure it was about whether or not to elaborate on what she thought of the two-tailed fox, or whether he even cared enough to bother.

Amy seemed to be blinking in confusion, even if she had known, which of course she had, it was odd to hear someone say this out loud. She tried to picture Tails and her... but her thoughts were quickly interrupted by the black hedgehog, "...what do you think of him?"

"I... I mean he's great!" She thought of how to word what she was trying to say, and fiddled with her dress. As she thought, Sonic tried to read the wild fire that seemed to be burning behind his mate's red eyes.

'Oh, yeah, sure... I can't get over Sonic, but the moment another guy comes along I'm too good for other people? Ugh, are you kidding me? Not that it matters... but I'm just tired of her obsessing over Sonic, he's mine!" Shadow's harsh thoughts surprised even himself, and the way he thought them was even weirder. His? He sounded like a crazy person, Sonic technically was his mate, well, was his. He had never gone so far as to think of it that way, but when in the face of Amy not getting lost, he had gotten crazy defensive.

"What's wrong with him?" Sonic was quick to question, he was determined to not only step on her heart but grind it with his burning shoes into the asphalt of rejection. She winced as if being physically struck.

"Nothing's wrong with him." Amy tried to think of it, but they weren't letting her. Maybe she was interested, no, this was just her trying to think of another way to make Sonic jealous. That's all it ever was.

"Oh, so little miss perfect is too good for him?" Shadow's voice got the cold chill in it that it had when he first saw her in his house.

"No!" Amy gritted her teeth and glowered at him for pressuring her like this, "Haven't you ever... you can't pick who you love...like! Sonic likes you and not me, that doesn't mean anything is wrong with me or he's too good for me." Shadow seemed to take that in stride and stood down, a relaxed look coming over him, "He just... likes you better."

"Yes, but..." Tears were forming in her eyes and Shadow's soft side kicked in just in time to make him silence himself for hurting her anymore.

"And... and I like Sonic more! And I always will!" Tears began falling as she stormed past both of them and slammed the door angrily, sending a resounding boom sound throughout the entire room. Sonic looked at him, shook his head and sighed.

"That could have gone better..."

"A lot better."

---

"And I always will!" The words pulsed through the dark hedgehog's mind like his own heartbeat. Sonic loved him and he knew that, and he loved Sonic more than Amy could even think to, he strongly believed that, but he couldn't bear the thought of that guilt hanging over him. He had basically stolen Sonic from Amy, though Sonic never liked her to begin with, Shadow had stepped and ruined any chance she ever had, no matter how small.

He stretched back on the couch, mumbling incoherently about Amy and Sonic, he was so deep in his thoughts he didn't even hear the door open. Then, still wasn't dragged out of Shadow land until the green-eyed hedgehog spoke up, "Hey, you ok?" Shadow blinked and suddenly looked up.

"Sonic!" Sonic just smiled at his surprise, and went on about his business, which seemed more roaming around looking for something to do than actually doing something. Shadow stood almost immediately, and smirk came over his face. His arm reached out and pulled Sonic into an unexpected embrace, not an unwanted one, obvious from the affectionate smile on his friend's face. He held him there for a moment.

This prompted a, "Shadow, is something wrong?" Out of his concerned mate, nothing was wrong anymore. So he just smirked and kissed Sonic quickly, released him and laughed.

"No, Faker... nothing's wrong." Sonic seemed pleased and bewildered, that was until the Faker comment register and he chose to pout about it. Shadow smiled and rolled his eyes affectionately. The darker hedgehog pulled Sonic's mildly resisting form even closer to him.

"Shadow..." He protested, almost inaudibly. Shadow just smirked, and slowly kissed his mate, soft and passionately. Sonic returned the kiss after a moment of receiving it with giddy pleasure, "Not now... someone might walk in and see." His eyes danced with desire and reluctancy. The confused face Shadow had come to adore. He whimpered softly and arched against Shadow's grasp.

"They'll get over it..." He said softly, his voice deep, dripping with desire. Sonic simply smiled and the slight resistence faded, Shadow smirked at the collapse of his reticency.

---

Tails sat quietly on his porch, lost in his own thoughts that he himself wasn't even sure of anymore. Amy danced through his mind, everything that had happened recently playing out in his spinning head like a Broadway musical. He looked down to the piece of white, clean paper in his hand. The pencil sat on the porch next to him, sharp as a nail, unused. "Amy..." He started, as if the pink hedgehog was standing before him now.

Unable to finish, he put the paper aside. Tears welled his sky blue eyes and he brought his arms up around himself, as if he were cold, he quivered with insecurity. His ear perked at the sound of a crunching autumn leaf. His eyes slowly turned in the direction, but before they reached their target, a gravelly voice reached his ears. "Tails!"

He blinked once, twice, then determined the source of the voice, "Knuckles..." His voice was a mumble, he wasn't quite sure he had said it after the fact. Knuckles reach him at last, tripping slightly on a rock and acting like it had been part of some act or another, as he stood before Tails, he cleared his throat. The echidna racked his brain for a beginning sentence, no luck.

"How's it going?" He mentally slapped himself, how absolutely retarded that had sounded! Tails managed what was so obviously a forced smile, even Knuckles noticed as much. "Not good? Something's wrong."

"It's nothing..." His voice trailed though, revealing that it was indeed something. Knuckles watched him closely for a few moments, but when he showed no sign of revealing anything, he simply sighed.

"Hey you two!" Something had prompted the girl, something about her last conversation and the utter agony that resided in her heart at this very moment, to go see Tails. The subject of her conversation with her beloved Sonic, and Shadow. She smiled sweetly, though, ignoring her own pain and strolled over to them.

She seemed unusually giddy, Tails thought, perhaps nervousness? Was there hope yet for a romance to be kindled? "Hello Amy!" Tails jumped up from his sitting position, now relieved he hadn't written anything on the paper and that Knuckles had shown up, otherwise he might have been reciting some love-professing mushy speech to her, as she approached.

Knuckles noticed how fast Tails had genuinely cheered up at the sight of Amy, so that's what had been bugging him. Rouge had mentioned something, and she always seemed to be dead on with this kind of stuff. "Is Cream with you?" He shot, his own thoughts taking a backseat to his fear of the cream-colored rabbit of death.

Amy giggled. "No."

Remembering Rouge's comments about the two, 'hooking up' as she put it, he decided to bolt, some strange excuse expelling from his mouth as he was already twenty miles in some unknown direction. Tails and Amy stood bewildered at his sudden departure. The pink hedgehog immediately felt extremely awkward. "So, what's up?" She turn to him finally, twirling and her dress flying a bit.

He smiled at her, the smile seemed creepy now that she knew he really did like her, "Nothing... just sitting here, thinking." Amy relaxed after this, the smile got less weird and she got less awkward, she smiled sweetly again.

"About what?"

"Different things." She smiled and laughed a little. Her hands shot down to her dress where she twirled the ends of it idly, staring at it as if it were some kind of an art form. Tails seemed equally as interested in what she was doing, but she didn't notice his stare. "Say, do you want to... take a walk?"

The sun was beginning to set, Amy thought for a moment. "Sure, that might be just what I need today!" She quickly smiled at him and linked her arm through his own. Somehow she ended up dragging him off on their walk, even though it was his suggestion. Amy had a tendency to take charge of situations, and Tails smiled as he realized maybe he had a reason for loving her.

They walked down a dirt road, Amy wasn't like too many girls and though she made a few comments about the brighter flowers, she didn't seem overly interested in the scene. Tails was however, there was no better place to be in love. It would have been all the sweeter had Amy returned is love. How he longed to take her in his arms, but with his luck, he'd probably sling her into him too hard and bust his chin open or something, he sighed at the thought. "It's beautiful." Not that thought, but the scenery was and the silence between them and overstayed its welcome.

"It is... so have you talked to Sonic or Shadow lately?" He was somewhat agitated at the mention of the blue hedgehog just as his romantic thoughts were about to take flight. Tails knew Sonic was his idle though, who he aspired to be like. At this point, Tails would have gladly taken just to be Sonic, since his current love interest was so interested in him.

Tails looked at the dirt, watching his feet as he walked, "No..." He wanted so badly to remind her that they were probably off somewhere making out, but he knew he didn't truly want to hurt her, just take her for his own. "Why do you ask?" This comment was far nicer than the one he had planned.

"Because I have." She said quickly. Tails was taken back by her immediate defense of herself when asked this question. He cocked his head slightly, assuming this would be enough so as to inquire an explanation. "Shadow's such a jerk!" Amy hissed through gritted teeth. Tails ears dropped a little, of course Shadow was a jerk, she was in love with Sonic.

His blue eyes averted to a purple and red sky for a moment, then came back to her, "What did he do now?" He tried to smile, or lighten the mood in a sense, "Besides, you hadn't figured that out yet? How long have we known Shadow now?" She returned the smile, to his immediate relief, even laughing ever so slightly.

"I don't know, he just-..."

"He's in love with Sonic, you know... it's not his fault he's protective." Tails found himself defending Shadow, or maybe he was just trying to kill what little hope she had left of ever getting the blue hedgehog back.

Tears began to burn in the hedgehog's eyes, she looked away, her teeth now gritted, "I wasn't finished!" Her voice has almost reached a yell. The small fox winced at her reaction to his unnecessary interruption. "It's not fair!" She broke down suddenly, "I could've... that stupid... he ruined everything!" She screamed and mumbled through her sobs. Tails finally took her in his arms and she wept against his chest.

"Amy..."

She drew back, not out of his arms, but pulled her face from his chest, to get a breath. "I want him back! What does Shadow have that I don't?" Tails could think of a few things. "And Sonic's so... in love with him too! I feel bad for still wanting him like this!"

"It's not your fault." Tails tried to keep his voice soft and gentle when inside his emotions were running wild. He wanted to come forward and tell the girl everything now. She had a right to know, and maybe he could get her on the rebound? She needed another guy right now. No! Why would he think like that? He didn't want a girl on the rebound. He wanted Amy.

She took ragged breaths for a moment, then finally calmed herself down, but to his utter amazement, her head fell back on his chest. Tails took the scene in, before it escaped him. The sunset, the girl of his dreams in his arms, the perfect scenery, it didn't get more perfect, well maybe if she were in his arms not over another guy. "You're right! It's not... but it's not Shadow or Sonic's either. I just wish I could move on!"

"You will." He mumbled, wondering if maybe he should be telling him the same thing. He looked away, his blue eyes growing misty as one could almost say he was fighting back tears, but they weren't burning, the thought of crying merely crossed the threshold of his mind, and was quickly and quietly dismissed.

The small hedgehog turned away and walked a couple of feet, creating a distance between her and Tails. He didn't look back over to her, though he noticed she had walked away from him, he lost himself in his own melancholy thoughts. Amy finally looked back at him, when he didn't approach her after several minutes, the silence beating down on her. "I..." She began but she had no idea of what her original statement was going to be, so she stopped. He turned his head, curiously, at her sudden cut off.

"You?" Tails urged her on.

Amy smiled weakly, "I don't know. I hope I can, but I just..." She stopped again, looking down, hot tears burning fiercely at her green eyes.

Tails drew in a breath, thinking of what he could say. After moments of contemplation, he opened his mouth to speak, "Sonic is always going to be here for you, Amy..." Amy looked at him curiously. "He's always going to be your friend; Shadow may have stolen your love interest but he didn't steal your friend, he has no intention of doing that." Amy grumbled something incoherent. "What?"

"Shadow..." She gritted her teeth, "He gets mad whenever he sees me... like he doesn't want me around... at all." Tails smiled slightly at her, but made no attempt to close the distance between them. She would have to do that on her own.

"He's just being protective, you said it yourself, he can't help but be a little jealous. Amy, you're beautiful." He hid a slight blush by turning away, acting as if he were getting his words together again, "He just doesn't want to lose Sonic."

Amy smiled at him, "Thanks, Tails..." She took a deep breath, as if what she was about to say physically burned her throat, "Not like he has anything to worry about..." Tails eyed her wonderingly. "Sonic likes Shadow so much... he never had an interest in me to begin with." Tails bowed his head, and then shook it.

"Maybe he didn't." He confirmed, he couldn't lie to her. "But he does care about you, think of all the times he's saved you." Tails clenched his teeth, not angrily, but in hesitation, "And... Shadow... Shadow might know he has no threat from you, but he's just jealous when it comes to Sonic, he'll get over that."

"He's had awhile." Amy said somewhat crossly.

Tails laughed a little bit, genuinely, "I know he has, but... boys will be boys." Amy raised an eyebrow at him and he just laughed it off again, "But, you will move on, there are plenty of guys out there who would kill to be with you."

"Aww..." Amy said quietly, touched my Tails' words. She felt a tinge of something tug at her heart at that moment, she blinked and stared off into space. His 'beautiful' comment came back to her mind and her face flushed a bright red, and her cheeks grew hot as fire. "Wow..." She laughed a little, it cracking in complete nervousness.

Was the red in her cheeks? He didn't know what had prompted the blush, but Amy Rose was blushing, Tails almost whirled around to see if Sonic was standing somewhere around, but he was indeed not. Amy was blushing because of something Tails had said, whether it be having to do with Sonic or not, it was a step in the right direction. He pretended not to notice though, "Wow?" He stared at her.

"You're so sweet." She finished, finally erasing the redness from her cheeks, though her body temperature still seemed to have gone up a few degrees.

Tails turned his back and blushed himself, "I try."

---

Knuckles approached Rouge with the utmost of cautions, she had a bit of a scowl on her face, and didn't look very amiable on this particular day. He wondered if his news would cheer her up at all, he certainly hoped so, she looked as if she could murder. "Did you... fail something?" She glared at him, confirming that he had hit the nail on the head. "Oh, I'm sorry, Rouge." He looked away, somewhat stumped due to her angry mood, "I wanted to talk to you about... Tails and Amy." He said it, but he didn't believe he had actually spoken those words.

She lightened up, smirking at him, "You, Knuckles? Are you sick?"

"No, seriously... I just had something to tell you..."

Rouge's anger subsided almost immediately, now he knew how to get her out of a bad mood, the only problem was he wasn't sure how often he could reduce himself to this, "Do tell."

Knuckles gestured, somewhat nervously, "They were together and Shadow told me Amy had talked to them about him... he said she didn't give any insinuation of liking him but she had noticed he liked her." Rouge seemed to be in thought, so he went on, "I went over to talk to Tails... and Amy showed up... I couldn't figure out why she'd wanna see Tails, but she did... then they went for a walk..."

Rouge seemed pleasantly surprised by this story, Knuckles was just relieved to stop sounding like a gossiping school girl. "I knew they were perfect for each other!" She sounded more enthusiastic than usual, actually, more enthusiastic than Knuckles thought her voice allowed.

"Yeah..." The echidna definitely lacked that enthusiasm.

Rouge smiled, "So did Shadow say anything else about what Amy had said?" Knuckles shook his head, thinking back to the conversation, Shadow had seemed a little uptight and unwilling to discuss it.

"Shadow... hey." After fourteen tries of no response, or maybe just five, Knuckles had grabbed the dazed hedgehog by the arm. "I'm talking to you."

"Knuckles?" He had seemed a little angry, no... annoyed, maybe... he was just in a sort of daze. "What?"

"What's the matter with you?" He had been curious, it wasn't normally like him to quiz Shadow about anything. They didn't talk much at all really, but he had looked really ... whatever it was. Knuckles figured it had to do with Sonic, so Shadow's initial answer, after twenty-billion 'nothings', shocked him.

"I just talked to Amy... I hate that girl."

"What? Why? What did she do?" Shadow's expression had gotten a little guilty at that point, and he murmured something inaudibly. It quit shocking Knuckles at this point, because he knew it did have to do with Sonic.

"She came over and talked to us about Tails, but she'll never give up on Sonic... I swear..." He gritted his teeth and cut himself short, he drew a calming breath, "She noticed Tails likes her, but... she started crying over the Sonic thing... I've gotta go."

"Well, he said Amy was still obsessed with Sonic." Rouge sighed heavily after this.

She drew her lips to one side of her face, "Well, that's a given, but it's high time she got over him... did Shadow seem upset?" Knuckles was absolutely positive Rouge could read minds, and he would not be convinced otherwise.

"Kinda."

She nodded, knowingly, like a complete and total mind-reader. She smiled at him, "Well, that made my day regardless, thanks Knuckles!" She hugged him and he got red and attempted to hug back by patting her. She rolled her eyes and began to walk off.

"Where are you going?" He took a breath, sometimes he thought the only reason she hung around him was to figure stuff out about Shadow and everyone else, no more information for her, he had gotten a hug though.

The bat shrugged her shoulders and smirked a little bit, "I don't know, I'll be back."

---

"Esp-izzly." Espio just stared at Vector, he couldn't even speak. He wasn't sure if he had actually been addressed as that or if Vector had finally flown off the handle. No, it didn't matter, he had flown off the handle either way.

"Excuse me?" He mumbled, quite traumatized after a moment.

Vector smiled proudly, Espio slowly began backing away before he even got the psychotic explanation, "I'm trying to be a ganster... it's the new cool thing."

"What - the - hell?" Espio stared blankly at him, then just flailed his arms about crazily, "How would you know what the 'new cool' thing is? We're stuck on A FUCKING SPACE COLONY! The only people around are you, me, Charmy and that weirdo malfunctioning robot that keeps running by! Better yet, why would you give a shit what the NEW cool thing is?"

Vector seemed to disregard any hostility Espio took towards him, "Oh, yeah! I named that robot Robizzle." Espio ran out of the room, screaming, and Vector wasn't sure, but what sounded like cursing Shadow. Then he hit a wall and fainted, probably his intent.

Charmy zipped into the room, smiling and creeping anyone, no wait... Vector was the only one in there, "Where's Espio? Maybe I think I found the way off this colony." Vector pointed in the direction Espio had run, then got offended.

"What! Why can't you tell me? What's the matter with me, just because I'm an alligator you don't think I can understand?" Charmy shook his head.

"No, it's kinda because you just called Espio, Espizzly."

Vector nodded his head understandingly, "I see. I think Espio knocked himself out on a wall again. He does that a lot, I think it's his way of saying he loves us."

"Really! He's so sweet!"

"I know!"

---

Amy yawned and sat up, she glanced at her clock at the time read 3 AM. She laid her head back down, knowing she wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep. So many thoughts came streaming through her head when closed her eyes. "Sonic..." She mumbled, barely able to hear it herself. She looked to the window and her imagination created scary images, like the kinds you see in horror movies. She rolled away from it and breathed deeply, "My whole life revolved around you..."

The pink hedgehog thought of writing a letter, maybe pouring it out would help. Tears began forming and falling down her cheeks, again she wondered why she thought about him every night. She pulled the covers up over her body some more and random images, all with him in them, ran through her mind. Like every night, she tried many positions, searching for any way to find peace and get to sleep, but nothing worked. Finally, she decided to get up and see if writing would help.

She rummaged around for a bit, finding a note pad, which took longer than the red pen she found right beside her bed, she stared at the paper. It was blank, white, standing out boldly against the darkness of her room. Amy hadn't bothered to turn on the lights, or she hadn't thought about it. It was cold. She whirled back to her window at a sudden noise, but saw nothing but expanding earth when she did. She shivered and brought the pad and pen back down underneath the covers with her. Quietly, she murmured some words, but soon was displeased with them, wadded up the paper and threw it out from the covers.

After five minutes, another loud noise startled her, she hurried out from under the covers and stared out the window again, nothing. Was Sonic going to drive her to the point of absolute insanity?