By the time the next day came the hectic days became dead quiet and the colorful lights were blown away by the morning wind leaving the scenery with a greyish tone to it. The morning wind blew through the empty streets, playing with a few remaining decorations from the previous night's celebration, raising them high up and when they reached their limits dropping them back on the ground.
In this calm, quiet yet dead-like morning, the young boy, Sonic woke up from his sweet dreams, where the girl with pale pink fur and ice blue colored irises was still dancing. They were dancing an everlasting dance, through time and space like inseparable azure birds. And under the exploding sky, as the world ended, their lips got pushed against each other, instinctively. Yes, every logical reasoning would be useless to describe these pictures. These were only his, and only his, pure, unfiltered emotions poured into strange, cryptic pictures that played in front of his eyes while he was sleeping. But as the morning rays of the weak sun shone through the cracks of the curtain, the images burned into ashes, and only the empty void remained.
He raised his head up from the soft grasp of the bedsheet and pillows and with those soggy eyes, he stared into the nothingness for a minute or two, his body waiting for his brain to send the commands to start his morning routine. However, this happened later than the usual. Stumbling upon a bucket of water in the middle of the room, he leaned above it. Putting the outer edges of his palms together, he sank his new creation into the dark abyss of the water. The ice cold water felt like a thousand knife stabbed his hands at once, then staying there for the rest of the time. Quickly, he raised his hand cone back up from the bucket and with the same rapid motion, he splashed water onto his face. He repeated the process a few more times before his brain could function properly.
"It looks like I stayed up for too long. Or I just got exhausted more than other time." He mumbled these sentences under his teeth, barely audible. Especially when he pressed the dry towel against his face to rub the icy water off of his face. It would be pretty foolish of him, walking around the place like this. He would catch a cold. Then he took a good long look in the mirror to see if he was presentable or not, in front of the girl in his dreams and of course, in front of his friends. The confirmation came from him in a form of a smile then after putting on his clothes, he proceeded out from the room to meet up with his friends. But what came after, is something that he did not expect this morning.
As he was exiting the room, he wanted to rush down the hallway as some kind of morning exercise, however as he turned his head, the body moved with it as well. This would not have been a problem in a case when there is nobody else was in the place. But there, in fact, someone, and the foolish boy crashed right into that one person that just happened to be out in the hallway with him. With a loud 'thud' noise, that certain individual fell on the wooden floor. However, there was something even funnier in this situation. That certain individual, who Sonic successfully tackled on the ground happened to be the beautiful girl from his dreams, Amy. You might ask how did she end up in the same house as Sonic? Well, that happened last night.
After the fireworks were over, it was pretty late and since none of the inns had any spare rooms to share, they had no other choice but to have her stay over at their place. Their place? Yes, all the boys were staying under one roof. They thought it was easier to manage everything if they share a slightly bigger house, and of course, managing the finances easier. If someone happened to be out of job, the rest of the people living under the same roof could help out the person until they found a new job and vise versa. And because of their choice for a house had many rooms on the second floor they were able to house Amy in one of them. Well, their choice landed on this particular house because they usually make friends easier than anyone else, mainly because of Sonic's quirky attitude. The other guys were a bit harder to approach, especially Shadow. He always had that strange negative aura lingering around him like a phantom.
As Amy's butt hit the floor hard, she closed her eyes, maybe on instinct to shield herself from the impact, though it made little, to no difference at all. It hurt her the same way. A painful moan left her body, then looked up at the quirky hedgehog, who had a nervous smile on his face.
"Great job. You fucked up the chance of getting closer to her." He thought. However, the girl was less annoyed than anyone would have expected. She let out a sigh then tried to stand up, before the boy lent her an assisting hand. She dusted her silky pajamas off them looked into Sonic's eyes. He could swear that her eyes emitted anger and annoyance, however the words that followed her stare stated something surprising. She was indeed, calm
"Look around before you wanna rush off to somewhere." She said then proceeded towards the staircase at the end of the long hallway. Sonic could have defended himself with the fact that the room was dim lit, however that look in her eyes and the strange warmth that enveloped his body when he averted his gaze at her, staggered him. He could barely understand the feeling, but it was something, but he could describe it as soft and tingly. Maybe he should see a doctor, however, the professionals would only laugh him off with these kinds of symptoms. Since this feeling was not even unpleasant, so doctors had no business with such a thing.
It took a little while to get himself out from under the spell of this strange kind of magic but this feeling came back as soon as he laid eyes on her on the first floor. She did not seem to notice the boy, slowly making his way downstairs. She was too distracted in the kitchen. Moving around in there like a pro, Sonic could not help his curiosity and proceeded to the busier part of the house. The girl swayed his body from one side to the other like a pro, having no problem even with multitasking. This went way beyond that typical, but mainly true sexist stereotype that 'Girls can easily multitask'. This kind of behavior was on the level of someone who works in the food industry, however working on the lower part of it, maybe in a small diner or something. Adjusting the heat, frying sunny side eggs and chopping up some meat along with vegetables. All in the matter of mere seconds. Sonic was looking around in the kitchen if he could catch a glimpse of moving-on-their-own tools or the essence of her working with her magical skills. However, none of them were present. The tools laid perfectly still as soon as the heedful hands let go of them and it was only logical, not using ice magic in a hot area. It would be canceled out automatically. Only high tier ice magic would be able to work in this kind of situation but it would result from not only the kitchen, but the whole town getting way below subzero temperature, bringing the new Ice Age to their repertoire. Moreover, Amy was not capable of using high tier magic. Maybe if her master was still alive⦠Maybe she could teach Amy to rule her mana circuits and maybe expanding it so she would be capable of using such devastating magic.
The hedgehog stayed by the door so that he will not be in the way of the professional. He managed to keep up with her only with his eyes. It was way easier than let's say, following her orders or trying to mimic her movements. He was more than impressed by her at this point.
"Wow, you sure would make a good housewife." He noted. Housewife? More like a semi-pro chef, he corrected himself in his thoughts. Amy did not seem to bet an eye for the compliment since she was too fixated to make everything perfect for breakfast.
"Count with the fact that I am several hundred years older than you and I was taught by a mage. Perfection and speed was everything she required." She explained when her work arrived into the completion stages. Opening the cupboard above her head, she quickly made a small ice cube under her feet to reach up for the plates and jumped off at the same speed before it could melt. Yes, not even mana could hold the ice together in this heat. The house felt closer to summer than winter thanks for the heating appliances in the house. Hot water was running through pipes that were heated by none other than the fireplace itself which was circulated in smaller, thin containers made out of stainless steel. The mastermind blacksmith of the town came up with this idea a couple of decades ago, sadly this mastermind is not alive anymore. He was an old fellow so it was expected to happen sooner or later. His grandson is leading the workshop with the same passion and innovation seeking eye as his grandad used to. The guy was a few years younger than Sonic and just like everyone in the same generation, they were friends. Actually, there were only a few rare cases in this town, in which people hated each other. Every generation depended on each other during childhood, and even during adulthood. If they had problems with each other, this stuff usually got sorted out during childhood. And the number of shared memories made even the toughest to conquer hearts, soft. This could be considered as a form of magic as well as Amy's elemental spells.
Amy handed the plates to the hedgehog boy, who was lazing around at the end of the kitchen.
"I would like you to make the table since you are awake. I take care of the serving of the food in the meantime. Deal?" She did not expect any type of answer to her statements, she rather expected Sonic to follow them. Of course not like she was too bossy or anything. She only had a genuine dislike for imperfection, and she had her hands full with the food.
The hedgehog boy shrugged with a quirky smile on his face and as he was told, he took out the plates to the dining table. Not long after, the rest of the gang came down too and at the same time, Amy finished setting the food on each, carefully organized plates. When it was right about time to have breakfast, nobody really knew where to start. The amount of prepared food was overwhelming, even for the chef. With an almost instinctive, non-verbal agreement, they decided to start with something light on the repertoire.
As the feast slowly came to an end, the pink girl looked at the satisfied faces of her fellow housemates. She felt satisfied as well since in her mind, at least she could pay back for the generosity of the boys. Last night's experience was really dear to her. The farewell to the ancestors, the fireworks, and that fantastic, adrenaline pumping figure skating competition. She could not be more thankful to fate, that it connected the boys' road to hers. Even if it was temporary. She finally made up her mind about giving up on her isolation, and though she did not really know how but she wanted to live a normal life again, as a fellow citizen. To feel herself alive again.
However, before she could ask for any kind of advice from the boys, a knock could be heard on the door. Sonic jumped up to answer it. There stood a small, orange fox with two tails. Looking at him, it was pretty hard to determine his correct age. Maybe he was a few years younger than Sonic. Amy could have bet on the three years of age difference with confidence.
"Guys, you need to come to the town square." The fox's voice was quivering with concern and leaving their breakfast behind, they set out to investigate.
