"I don't quite know how to say

How I feel

Those three words are said too much

They're not enough."

Static interrupted the still night air as Amy turned on her radio. The hedgehog had bartered for so long at the marketplace the other day, she did not want to leave without it. Amy came back to the hut with pride, pleased with her acquired item, showing it off quite proudly to Zero. The radio wasn't much to look at. It was rectangular in shape, white, and had a severely beat up antenna. Though that wasn't important to the heroine. What was most important about it was that it was battery operated, which was why Amy was so gung-ho on getting the stupid thing. The shop owner had given her a pack of batteries along with the radio, much to Amy's delight.

The jackal now eyed her as she played with the tuner, his ears swiveling as he listened to the static. Suddenly, a female's voice boomed from the unimpressive little contraption. Amy quickly scrambled to turn it down, giggling as she remembered she played with the volume adjuster earlier. Zero's fur that had been standing on end finally relaxed and smoothed down as he listened to the female's voice on the radio. She was introducing a band's newest hit single; Hysteria! at the Club they were called, Elated Ambitions the song was titled. One of the most peculiar tunes began to fill the canine's ears and he found himself entranced, his mind completely overtaken by the lyrics.

Amy smiled his way, watching the campfire dance across his face as he listened to the music intently. She caught her mind wandering, thinking how handsome he was in this moment. The dim light surrounding him, the fire lighting up his face, no hard lines in his expression, his lips slightly parted... She shook her head at that last thought, silently cursing herself. Looking back at him, she sighed. This was the most relaxed Amy had seen him in a while, except for when he slept. Zero gave Amy the impression that he had never heard music before. Maybe… he hasn't even danced before?

With that, Amy quickly shot up from her seat, breaking Zero from his trance. The heroine began moving to the beat of the song, swaying her hips and arms in sync, and practically hopping around. The canine flashed a toothy grin and it took everything he had in him not to burst out laughing. Without a second to waste, Amy grabbed Zero's wrists, unwillingly pulling him to his feet.

"R-Rose," he stammered, trying to sound angry but failed miserably.

"I saw you starting to laugh," she said with sternness. "Let's see you do any better."

Zero suddenly felt very small, not the big persona he externalized. He had never actually danced before; not even playfully or ironically with his siblings and squad mates. The jackal was at a complete loss for words, and actions. Since he would not move, Amy moved for him. The hedgehog danced with the grace of a swan… if the swan's wings had been broken and it was drowning. Amy danced until the song was over, it's joyful sound immediately being replaced by a generic pop song. The heroine groaned and turned the station, finding another playing classical, orchestrated music. She decided that this was suitable background music and then began helping Zero cook their fish dinner.

The pair's day had been majorly spent out in the forest foraging for berries, fishing, and swimming. Amy was planning on making wild berry porridge for dessert, one of the jackal's favorite foods since arriving in Adabat; roasted flickies were slowly becoming his new favorite. Foraging wasn't something Zero particularly enjoyed but he was happy to help Amy do literally anything. If she had even the slightest hint of his monumentally huge crush on her, she never let on. Maybe it's better this way, the jackal thought to himself, eyes slowly falling to the sand below his feet. He didn't want to possibly ruin what he and Amy had right now by telling her his feelings, he couldn't bare it if she decided that she didn't want to be his friend anymore.

Soon enough, their food was done, and Amy skewered their fish and hung a small pot on the rotisserie spit to cook the porridge, giving them each a bowl as soon as it was done cooking. Zero doesn't know how it happened but the two soon started making small talk as they ate. This quickly unfolded into other areas of conversational topics, namely… embarrassing stories.

"Okay, so I know this might sound silly," the heroine began, cheeks flushed red. "But when I was younger, I used to have the biggest crush on Sonic." She started yelling at Zero to shut up when he started laughing at her.

"Used to," the jackal question, chuckling. "I was still under the impression you still did. I mean, the Doctor used to talk about it. Often."

"Egghead talked about my crush?!" Amy practically shrieked. "That was none of his business to be sharing!" Zero only shrugged in reply, a smug grin on his face.

"Ugh! I bet he told you about the look-alikes too…?" The jackal cocked his head at that, genuinely curious. He motioned for her to get on with it.

"Oh… When I first met Shadow, I thought he was Sonic. And at the time, I was still deep in my crush for Sonic and always gave really strong hugs whenever I saw him so… I hugged Shad." She forced a laugh. "I did the same thing with Silver too."

"Wow, Rose. That is truly the most embarrassing thing I have ever heard."

"You're telling me!" There was not even a sliver of anger in her outburst, only amusement and slight discomfort. "I mean, my crush has been gone for a while but… no one ever really let me live it down? It was just a harmless, girly crush; innocent even. But I was the topic of many conversations back at HQ…" The jackal's grin faded and he was left saddened by her tale. To make it even. Zero decided to tell Amy some demeaning story of his own; one from his childhood.

"Growing up," he started, the hedgehog visibly perked up with intense interest. She scooted closer to him as he continued.

"When I was a pup, I had the biggest ears of all the other pups my age. I used to get picked on quite a bit until I finally grew into them… after 5 years." Amy practically roared with laughter and squeals.

"Aww! That's so adorable!"

"Yeah. They were big even for a jackal." Zero snickered, flexing his ears as he did so. By this point, Amy was sitting right next to him. Before he knew it, the hedgehog reached out a gentle hand to his face and began to scratch behind his ears.

"I bet you were so cute." The jackal stiffened, eyes fluttering. It took all his strength and will-power not to kick his leg and it still wasn't enough. Zero's left leg was beyond controlling as it patted the sand below, making Amy stop her pleasurable assault. The jackal stood straight up and quickly shot to his feet, clearing his throat.

"U-uh…" The canine did not know wat to say to make this any less awkward, especially for him. Amy was trying to read his body language, not being able to sense if she had done something wrong. She decided she should apologize anyways, head hanging low.

"Sorry, Zee…" Amy suddenly had a solemn tone, the jackal's ear picked it up with ease.

"Rose, no," he quickly replied. She did not look at him, fearing that she would meet and angry face. Zero placed a kindly hand under her chin, slowly raising it to have her look him in the eyes.

"Don't be sorry. You didn't do anything wrong." Zero lowered his eye lids, a sly grin splitting his muzzle. "It's not like I didn't enjoy it."

The canine then began to tickle under her chin, mindful of his claws as he pulled away from her. She giggled and nodded at him, sighing with relief knowing that she didn't upset him. Still, she should have asked at least. Wanting to move on from the incident, Amy turned the classical channel on the radio to begin the pair's newfound bedtime ritual. The night Amy had gotten the radio, she kept changing channels until one in particular struck her fancy. Zero had soon found out why. A raspy, male voice had caught her attention on one of the frequencies, it was none other than Vector the Crocodile. Zero had been watching her while she played around with the tuner, witnessing how her face lit up to hear one of her Resistance friends. From that night on, Amy wanted to listen to the talk show every evening.

Vector's broadcast covered everything from the time to world news; he even had the periodical special guest appearances on his show. Amy did not care what he discussed, she just enjoyed having a piece of home… at her home. She never thought she could call this place home. And Zero… had come so far. She would even go as far as to say that they were best friends, despite whatever the canine companion had to say about the matter. However, that was nothing new to her. Amy knew that he cared about her and she cared about him too; she was just more open about showing it than he was. Zero was always trying to hide his true intentions behind his unwelcoming demeanor and isolative tendencies.

As Vector's talks how came to an end an hour later, he wished all his listeners a good night and thanked them for tuning in. Amy always answered, no matter how strange it would be to some. Zero found it endearing to hear, part of him wishing the reptile could somehow hear Amy all these odd miles away from Empire City.

Zero put out the fire as Amy cleaned off the rotisserie spit and they both helped each other clean the dishware that was used. As soon as all the night's chores were completed, the two were now ready to head off to bed. They each entered the shack, Amy stopped at the threshold leading into the bedroom, marking another day off of her calendar. Almost nine and half moths they had been here together. It wasn't like Amy wasn't happy here, but she really did miss her friends and family back home. The heroine could not wait to reintroduce everyone to "Infinite".

Zero curled up on his pallet, having not slept with Amy since the night she cried herself to sleep. It was the most restful sleep he had gotten since their arrival, but he just did not feel comfortable… sleeping with Amy. Perhaps he was just too prideful, he thought. He knew that Amy hated that he slept on the floor and was more than willing to share the bed, being it was more than big enough for the two of them. The jackal did not care, nothing was going to change his mind.

His ears twitched as he heard Amy shuffle her way through the darkness to her bed. She had already changed into her night clothes while Zero had been lost inside his head. The springs creaked and groaned as she crawled under the blanket, snuggling into her pillow. After a time, the hedgehog broke the stillness of the night.

"Hey Zee," she started, he grunted in response. "What if we started a garden?"

"Can you even… grow food in the sand?"

"We won't know unless we try, right? And there are places in the forest where we could plant too, I'm sure."

"I suppose you're right, Rose. Would you like to go to the marketplace to get some seeds? Hell, the shop owners could probably point us the right direction and how to start."

"Oh, I didn't even think of that, Zee." She yawned then. The jackal smiled.

"Get some rest, Rose. We'll talk more about it tomorrow." The hedgehog yawned once more, grunting in agreement. She stretched, curled into a ball, and was out like a light; the jackal was soon to follow.

Author's Note:

So hello again everyone! Suetonic here with another update!
I'm sorry for the past two chapters being... filler. But I still feel like the story is going too fast idk.

Chapter 7 will actually move the story along. Thank you all for your reviews!
You are all blessings!

And yeah, Panic! at the Disco reference. It was a play on the song "High Hopes" lol.