Amy's entire world had been turned upside down in the span of a week. At least, that was how it felt. She'd finally told Sonic about her feelings for him, only to be rejected.

"I'm really sorry, Ames," he'd said. "You're always going to be one of my best friends--but I just don't see you that way."

Quick and to the point. Just like him. And then, as if that wasn't bad enough, turns out that he liked Blaze instead. Amy couldn't totally fault him, she supposed, though it still hurt to realize that she'd held so much false hope for the past several years. And the fact that he hadn't told her about his feelings for someone else himself. She'd ended up hearing about it from Tails when he told her they were dating. She left several broken items in her wake as she'd stormed off, her piko piko hammer out and swinging.

On top of that, the bakery she helped Vanilla the Rabbit and her daughter Cream run had been unexpectedly busy, and they'd all had to start working much later hours. Before, Amy was home by 6:00 pm. Now it was more like 10:00. And of course she couldn't get to sleep at a reasonable time because her thoughts kicked into overdrive, resulting in her either binge watching a show without really paying attention to the plot, or crying herself to sleep at 3:00 in the morning.

She was emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted. All. The. Time.

Normally, Amy coped with stress and negativity by baking, but that was becoming more and more of a chore with how much was going on at the bakery. She'd tried meditation and listening to stories to get to sleep, but nothing worked. She just always felt like a zombie.

This is ridiculous, she would tell herself sometimes. It was a stupid crush, and I don't need to be such a mess over it. I'm a strong young woman! It didn't stop the pain though. It just made her ashamed of herself.

Until she discovered magic. A love spell to be precise. She'd stumbled upon it in a late-night social media binge. Amy had never really touched magic before, especially witchcraft, but it definitely caught her attention. If it meant that Sonic would love her back, she thought it might have been worth a chance.

After work the next day, despite how tired she was, Amy went down to an occult shop in the center of town. It was open for a couple more hours, and there were a lot of items for the spell that she already had, but she needed more candles and sage for cleansing among a few other things.

The smell of incense was overwhelming when she walked in, and she coughed just a little. A bark blue cat sat behind the counter, and he smiled and waved at her as she walked in. "Welcome!" he greeted her. "How can I help you?"

"Hi," Amy said, trying to force a friendly smile. "Do you know where I could find candles and cleansing herbs?"

"Sure do!" He emerged from behind the counter, still smiling, his long tail curving in a question mark. He got close enough that Amy could read his name tag. "Ace."

Ace led her to a corner of the store just out of sight of the front of the store. He pointed out the various herbs that worked the best depending on what kind of magic she was trying to do. Sage was just a good universal cleansing herb for the space in which one was going to do spell-casting.

The bell above the door jingled as another person entered the shop. Ace checked to see who it was, and left Amy to look at the herbs on her own with an apologetic smile. Looked like they were short staffed. She looked at the sage in front of her, grabbed a bundle, and started walking around the store, taking everything in.

Now that she'd gotten used to it, the smell of the incense was actually pretty nice. That and the smell of all the other herbs in the shop--lavender, rosemary, and other earthy scents--made her feel strangely at peace for the first time in a while.

She walked over to a section of the store stocked with more candles than Amy had ever seen in one place before. This place is like the kitchen and home sections in a supermarket times ten, she marveled inwardly as she stared at all the candles, all different colors and even scents.

Amy pulled out her phone and looked at the instructions for the spell that she had saved. The candle she used had to be a certain color at the very least but did it have to have a certain scent too?

"Rose," came a gruff voice behind her, and she jumped, dropping her phone and pulling out her hammer, whipping her head around and aiming just before she finally recognized who it was.

"Oh, Shadow," she said with a nervous laugh. "You scared me."

"I see that," replied the black hedgehog, not a trace of a smile on his face. That wasn't unusual for him. In fact, Amy would have been a little weirded out if he did smile. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd still be at the bakery."

"Stuff," Amy answered simply, trying to make the conversation as short as possible. It wasn't that she didn't like talking to Shadow. She was tired, and she didn't want to talk about the love potion idea, and if she said anything, he would figure out what she was up to. Shadow was too perceptive to be fooled easily, and she didn't want to anyway. She just... if she was being completely honest she didn't want to deal with people.

Shadow stared at her for a moment, then huffed, turning to the shelves of candles. "You look like a zombie," he said bluntly. "How much sleep have you been getting?"

"I'm fine, Shadow," said Amy, trying to keep a polite, cheery tone when in reality she just wanted him to shut up. "The bakery's just really busy right now. I'm sure it'll die down soon."

"You really think you can lie to me, Rose?" Shadow said, turning to look at her and crossing his arms across his chest. He pointed to her face. "Dark circles." Then he pointed to her shoulders. "Slumped posture."

Then his face softened just a little bit. "And you look like you're about to start crying," he finished.

Amy didn't say anything because he was right. If she said anything, she knew she'd lose it, so she just turned away, grabbed the candle she needed, and walked away and up to the cash register.

Ace rang her up, put her items in a paper bag, and wished her a good day as she left. Amy's thoughts kept drifting to Shadow. Did he actually care about her well being? Normally he never gave any indication that he cared about any of her friends, least of all Sonic.

Just thinking Sonic's name made her heart sink in her chest. But with this spell, she thought, trying to hold on to her determination even through the tears starting to fall, everything will finally be right again.

Author's note: Hi, guys! Hope you enjoyed this first chapter! This is my first Shadamy fanfic. A disclaimer though!! As a beginning witch myself, don't use a spell meant to make someone else love you! It's unethical as it takes away their free will. Most beginners are warned against this, and I want to warn anyone who is thinking of actually practicing. Be really really careful when getting into witchcraft, and don't do it for the reasons Amy is. Okay, disclaimer over! Hope you enjoy the rest as it's posted!