Chapter 22

Can We Talk?

Shadow continued to make glances at Shail; nothing.

He doesn't blame her for icing him out, but how could he help it? It just slipped out. But ever since that night at La Luna, she had not been able to let it go.

"She's just… a coworker."

"God, I'm such an idiot," he muttered under his breath.

Working together didn't make things easier; any time he would try to talk to her, she dodged him. Any time he relayed orders to her, she would snap at him. She was in a constant temper, and Shadow knew the only way to ease her was to speak with her.

"Hey, Shail… Do you mind if we talk after work?" he asked as he walked by her again to wipe down tables. The blue fox looked up from her register with an icy glare, looking back down, "… Talk about what?"

He swallowed down his nervousness, glancing back and forth around his surroundings. "You know. About what happened the other night."

Shail gritted her teeth, her sharp fangs peered through her lips in annoyance, "Oh? You want to talk about the other night? Why would you? Aren't I just a 'coworker' to you?"

'I… totally deserved that', Shadow thought as he took her verbal blow. He knew it was going to take thousands of man hours to make damage control, but he had to do it. He knew he hurt her feelings, and he knows that Shail suspects Amy as his ex, so he had to tell her the truth.

"I know I hurt you… which is why I need to talk to you about this."

Which is what they did.

After work, they took a stroll from the coffee shop and ended up at a nearby park. Shadow told his truth, Shail replied… and it was then that they agreed that perhaps it was a step they took too soon. Shail knew that Shadow just broke up with Amy, so for her to be upset for Shadow's residual feelings towards her isn't fair to him. And Shadow communicating that need for space and his apology to her brought them both on the same page, and after staying out for a few hours talking, they concluded their short-lived relationship. After everything was said and done, they hugged it out and walked home together, to have another late night meal together as the friends they've always been*.


Amy never had an opportunity to venture outside Sonic's manor, so she decided to take the morning to roam around and explore. Ever since she was "kidnapped", she couldn't really go home and go back to work, so until the five months of slavery was over, she feels like she has no other choice. She walked out onto the entrance and gasped in astonishment, taking in the sights: Sonic had taste, and he knew just how to show it.

All around his manor were rows and rows of plant life of any form nestled in their respective sections. Greenery stretched out while containing a winding road in the center starting from the entrance of Sonic's manor, making Amy dizzy. She shook her head and proceeded onward around the manor, seeing mini fountains and pet peacocks strolling about the area.

Besides the plant life, she saw trees as far as the eye can see within the confines of his small kingdom, and if there's one thing she can give Sonic credit for, its his attention to detail. Everything was perfectly watered and cared for, with no browning in sight, and she can only be impressed with the care that he's managed to give to all his plants. She smiled at the sight, and continued walking through his many gardens and cobble-stoned walkways that lead further into his garden.

There, she saw Sonic, sitting in one of his patio sets around his gardens, taking a sip from his drink. Amy groaned under her breath, but changed her scowl into a smile, "Hey! What are you doing in this heat?"

Sonic looked up from his drink, closed his eyes and leaned back with his arms folded behind his head, "I'm just enjoying the afternoon. Nothing much to do today since I got all my work done."

Amy walked over and sat across him, a puzzled look on her face, "… Question. What exactly is it that you do?"

Sonic looked at her with irritation, "Are you forreal? Why do you have to say it like that?"

"Well, I don't know—I'm just genuinely curious. You have all this money and all this stuff… I kind of figured you were just a man child living off his parents—"

Amy stopped mid-speech and remained silent for a moment. 'That's right… His mom and dad…' she thought. Sonic leaned forward once more, "For your info, I work under my dad. He owns a successful chain of vineyards all across Mobius, so… there ya have it."

"So, your dad manages vineyards… That still doesn't really answer my question."

Sonic sighed and reached towards Amy, flicking her forehead.

"Ow! What was that for!?"

"Mind your business, slave. You shouldn't worry about that. It doesn't concern you."

"How can you be so all about your privacy now!? You just told me about some ex-girlfriend from God-knows-when, and now you don't want to open up?!"

They both maintained their glares at each other, until Sonic broke away first. He began playing with his straw before smirking at her, "… My ex, huh? How convenient of you to bring that up."

Amy blushed and slammed her hands against the patio table, "How is it possible for every single word that comes out of your mouth to sound STUPID!?"

He released a hearty laugh and took another drink, "I'm just saying! Seems might shady for you to bring it up again. If you're really curious, I work as an assistant for my dad. I'm supposed to follow him around and junk, but I haven't done that for years."

Amy sat back down, "Wait, so how are you getting paid? Are you telling me that you've been playing super hero this whole time? So… why are you doing this now?"

Sonic folded his arms, staring back intently, "… Doing what?"

She shuffled in her seat, nervousness suddenly overtaking her, "I mean… if you were enjoying being with that girl and being involved in a movement… What made you want to come back to this kind of… corporate life? What made you want to change your mind to become involved in your father's capitalism when you were fighting against the oppression of people?"

Silence.

The sun continued to beam down unmercifully down on the patio umbrella while the cicada's cricketing reverberated the empty silence. Mosquitoes buzzed by, car engines rang in the distance, people's chatter echoed, but nothing was able to pierce the quiet that planted between them.

Sonic let out another laugh, brushing his quills back. He grabbed some sunglasses from his pocket and placed them over his eyes. "… Maybe a story for another time."


As soon as Suzu came home from violin practice, they all had dinner and as they all sat together, Amy couldn't help but stare at Sonic. There was so much she really didn't know about him, despite their history together. Although there was a purpose for her staying there, having all of this unfold just made her realize that there was much more to him than his sarcastic exterior. He wasn't always this way, sure, but… what made him want to change?

Sonic felt Amy's eyes, so he turned to her, "What? There something on my face?"

Amy shook her head, "N-No! I was just thinking…" 'Shit, I have to think of something!'

"So… when will your parents be here? I mean… you made me go through that insipid training… so, when's the big reveal?"

He took a bite from his food, "I told you you'd be here for 5 months, right? Well… originally, that was the plan. My folks are away on the other side of the world right now so they won't be back till then, but they might make it back sooner than later."

Amy began to sweat, "S-So… you're saying that I'll have to meet them soon? And you're sure that once this is all over, I can finally go home?"

Suzu frowned, folding her arms across her chest, "Uncle… Let's hope this goes well. I don't think grandma and grandpa are so… well… stupid."

"Can you at least have some faith in me? I just need them to leave me alone, and this is the only way to do it," said Sonic, turning away in a huff.

"But… let's just say this does go off without a hitch…" Amy began, folding her hands in front of her chest, "… Would you just have to keep doing this each time they come by? Wouldn't you just… want to be free from all that?"

Sonic chuckled and took another bite of his food, "… If I do that, then I wouldn't have any of this. We have no choice, we have to do this."

Suzu and Amy looked at one another with concern. Sure, in the beginning, it seemed fun and made sense, but… does it really have to be this way?

What began a mere few weeks ago* seemed to have progressed quickly.

Amy had a simple life: she lived in her apartment, had a nice, stable relationship with Shadow, but after going out for one night, she reunites with Sonic the Hedgehog after not seeing him for years. She loses one of her expensive shoes that cost more than her rent, and in order to get her shoes (as well as her life back), she has to participate in some form of domestic servitude for five months. But even with barely going through the first couple of weeks of the first month of her so-called "sentence", there were still so many questions left unanswered.

After dinner, Amy made her way upstairs into her room, closed the door, and sank down to the floor. She wanted to know why all of this was happening, and how any of this made sense to Sonic.

Why did she have to do this?

She hadn't even heard from Rouge in weeks… Isn't she worried?

Why did Shadow let her go so easily?

'Shadow…'

Amy tilted her head back and released a sigh, "Wonder how he's doing… I haven't seen him since then…"

She rose from her place by the door and made her way towards her vanity; she picked up her phone and began texting a message. After she finished, she sent it and waited patiently. After a few minutes, she got a reply and smiled.

"We… should… talk…" she spelled out quietly, her fingers moving on all corners of her keyboard.

It's always nice to check in with friends… even ex-boyfriends that broke up with you not that long ago.


Author's Note: Happy 2020! … Sort of. Hello everyone! I hope everyone is staying safe in these trying times. I know it has once again been quite some time since I've updated, but this time, I'd like to provide some context for some of the changes you will be seeing in this story. I think it's worth mentioning that when I first began writing this story, I was literally 13-years-old. It began with what was once a small fanfiction I posted on the 4Kidz Forum that was adored by many fellow fans until they planned on getting rid of the 4Kidz website all together. It was then that I had to make the difficult decision of moving my fanfic elsewhere, in which case at that moment, I decided to move it here, onto Fanfiction.

Then as time flew by, I kept writing and adding onto the story many dramatic flare ups, and heavily relied on dynamic, almost cartoon-like dialogue to keep the story going. But now, being 26-years-old, I look back on this story fondly, but cringingly. In case no one's really noticed… there's a lot of inconsistencies I myself never noticed over time because all I ever wanted to do was to continue adding onto the drama that looking back on everything now… there are some things that make no sense. So I've decided to do some damage control and change some things up so that it does make sense while maintaining its drama. But a few things I plan on changing up is Shail's involvement in my fanfiction. Shail's creation only began due to another fellow 4Kidz user submitting their character to 13-year-old me since I wanted more involvement from the 4Kidz community, hence… why Shail was placed in my story to begin with. But now, I don't feel right continuing to use a character that someone else created without their knowledge.

But now that I'm older and have refined my writing a lot more, I feel like there are some things that should and can be fixed so that I can give everyone the conclusion they've been wanting for years. Another change I will be making will be the way dialogue is done; my characters will no longer be obnoxiously "anime". Its just always rubbed me a weird way to read how I wrote in the past, so that'll be changed. These are only a few of the ones that are in my head right now, but I just wanted to add this here so that people are aware that, yes: there is a lot to be improved in this fanfic. Editing it all takes too much time and effort, and I also feel like if I went back to edit everything, I'll lose a fragment of my writing that I'll never get back again.

This chapter is very different in terms of writing, as you can see a bit of my internal dialogue analyzing my own story. I'm probably breaking some fourth wall doing this, but I feel like this kind of narrating is necessary for what I'm trying to do, which is to correct certain behaviors and actions that were done for the sake of this story. Being young, I didn't understand the type of content I was writing; I just thought it was quirky and cute and funny to put these characters in certain situations that would make the readers laugh and re-evaluate the types of SonAmy stories there were. But I'm doing this form of writing now, so that you guys can follow with my rationale and see the damage control I'm trying to make with this story.

Earlier chapters were literal copy-and-pastes from the original forum, so it would break my heart if I were to get rid of it. So instead, I'll just build on top of it, since it seems like this story has managed to earn a special place in people's hearts, in which I'd like to say thank you for tuning in and being so patient with me and my writing. But at the same time, I don't think this story aged well at all, but I want to do my best to improve and make this story as right as I can make it. This is probably the longest author's note I've written, but I feel like it's necessary to give you guys... a talk. :)

I love you all, and I hope you all continue to stay safe.