Amy didn't cast the spell that night, nor the next. She also didn't hear from Shadow again until a few days later, when he showed up at the bakery again. This time he actually bought something, just a regular croissant, but he still lingered at a table inside the building, mostly staring out the window.

Even with the customers coming in and out, when Amy was stationed behind the front counter, her gaze kept being pulled towards the black hedgehog. Normally, when he came in--which admittedly was quite rare--he would leave immediately. Today Amy could tell there was something different. What it was, however, she had no idea.

A little while later, there was finally a lull in business, since the noon rush was over, and it was a Tuesday, and she went over to the table Shadow was sitting at. "Hey," she said, and he looked up at her. For once, there wasn't a hint of his usual intensity, the hostility she usually saw whenever Sonic was around gone, and whatever it was she'd seen a few days prior was gone too. He just looked really tired.

"Hello, Rose," he said. He looked away again, his gaze going to the snow-covered buildings outside, the couples and a few children walking by in the snow that had begun to fall late last night. Shadow just looked at it all wordlessly, an almost wistful expression on his face.

"Is everything okay, Shadow?" Amy asked gently. He didn't answer, continuing to stare out the window. Amy stood there awkwardly for a moment. As tired as she still was, and as surly as Shadow usually was, she wanted whatever he was doing to stop. Even his usual weirdness and hostility would have been easier to deal with than this.

So she sat down across from him and gently tapped his gloved hand with her own. He turned to look at her, his eyes widening in surprise. "What?" he asked plainly.

"I asked you a question," she replied softly. "Is everything okay?"

Shadow huffed. "You don't really care," he said, and Amy winced. "And why should I divulge my suffering when you won't tell me about your own? Besides, I doubt you'd actually understand."

Amy's cheeks flushed with anger. "Are you saying I'm too stupid to understand?" she demanded. "I'm not a kid anymore, Shadow! I'm not stupid! And just because I don't trust you doesn't mean that I don't care!"

"But the fact is that you don't trust me," Shadow retorted. "So why should I trust you?"

That shut Amy up, and she bit the inside of her cheek, dropping her head and breaking eye contact. "You've got a point," she admitted.

"I understand you have your reasons for not trusting me, and I have admitted that I am at fault," Shadow said. "I am not asking for you to trust me. I am asking you to respect the same boundaries for me as I am respecting for you."

He stood, pulling on his coat and walking towards the door. Amy followed quickly. "Shadow, I'm sorry," she said.

"Don't," Shadow responded. And then he left, the bell jingling as he walked down the street.

Guilt squirmed in Amy's stomach, and she groaned as she debated what to do. Things had been slower the past few days, though it was still pretty busy. The wintertime--especially during the holidays--was always really busy. She might be able to catch up to Shadow and try to talk to him for a little bit, but she couldn't take too long.

"Hey, Cream?" Amy called. "Think you can hold down the fort for a bit? I have something I gotta do!"

"Okay, Miss Amy!" Cream said, emerging from the back covered in flour. She smiled brightly. "Don't be too long!" the rabbit said, waving.

Amy nodded, shrugging quickly into her coat and opening the door, the cold stinging her face as she ran down the street in the direction she'd seen Shadow going. Her boots crunched in the snow on the sidewalk, and she cringed, hoping he wouldn't hear her and teleport away or something.

Would he do that? she wondered to herself. She hadn't seen him do anything like that since the Eggman days. She didn't doubt that he could, but then again, who knows. The chaos emeralds hadn't been found since Eggman's last defeat, and she didn't know if they even existed anymore. Probably, especially given that Knuckles hadn't been around in a while.

Amy shook her head, trying to get her thoughts back on track. Just then, she finally caught sight of the black hedgehog, the red on his quills facing her as he kept walking down the street. She picked up her pace even more, the cold hurting her lungs even more as she did so.

"Shadow, wait!" she shouted breathlessly. The black hedgehog stopped and turned to look at her, frowning as she struggled to catch her breath. "I'm... sorry... sorry for... what I said. I didn't... mean to... pry."

"Just breathe, Rose," said Shadow. "I can barely understand you and your face is going to turn blue if you keep trying to talk."

There it is again, Amy thought, still gasping. That sense of concern for me. What is that about?

Once she caught her breath, she tried again. "I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean to pry, I just--"

"Don't apologize," said Shadow. "It shows you care enough to ask, and I think I owe you an apology for what I said."

"No," said Amy. "You really don't owe me anything. And I'm realizing just how awful I've actually been to you for the past week and I'm really sorry for all of that. You've been trying to help and..." Amy's voice was getting increasingly wobbly as she went on, and she stopped and cleared her throat to try and stabilize it. "I've been pushing you away because I've been hurt and it's not fair for me to take it all out on you. I... I'm sorry... I know you've been trying to help but--"

Tears were already falling down her cheeks, and it was at this point that Shadow approached her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close in a tight hug. "Rose, you have nothing to apologize for," he whispered in her ear.

He pulled away, holding her shoulders and looking her directly in the eye. His gaze then moved to the ground as he spoke again. "I did the same thing earlier," he said. "I'm... also struggling. But this is more long-term than heartbreak, and I... also shouldn't take it out on you."

"Apology accepted," Amy said, a tiny smile making its way across her face. Shadow looked at her again, and she could see relief relax his face for just a moment. But he didn't smile back, and she didn't expect him to.

She lifted his hands off her shoulders and gave one of them a little squeeze as she let it down gently. "I gotta get back to work," she said, sighing. "But..."

"But...?"

"I think we should continue this later. At the very least, I think I should be making more of an effort to understand you and... and open up to you. And I can't do that if I just avoid you."

"No, you can't," Shadow agreed, and this time, Amy saw the corners of his mouth tip up in a smile. Her stomach squirmed, and her cheeks flushed. He'd just smiled at her.

No, that's not a big deal, Amy told herself as she walked away, waving as she made her way back to the bakery. I don't like him like that, right? Right. And he doesn't like me like that either.

Her heart sank at that last thought, but she shook it away as she opened the bakery door, the bell jingling overhead. She took off her coat again and hurried behind the counter to relieve Cream, who went back into the back room to keep restocking.

Even so, Shadow didn't leave her thoughts for the rest of the day, and she wouldn't realize until before she went to bed that night that she'd hardly given Sonic any thought since seeing Shadow that afternoon.

Well, Amy thought, I'm still not going to perform the love spell yet. Who knows, maybe the situation is changing? It still hurt that Sonic never told her anything, and she was still jealous of Blaze, but maybe making a new friend in Shadow would do her some good.