Alright I seriously will update more often, but my school's musical is this week, SATs were last weekend, and my teachers are giving me no mercy. =_= I actually should be reading Huck Finn right now.

Thanks for the reviews, and I'm sorry if previous chapters have any random (break) things in the middle...I do those when I write so that I can insert a line break later, but lately I've missed a couple.

Fierce

Chapter 4: Slow Down

"I'm sorry!"

Both hedgehogs stood with their backs to each other, too fearful of the other's emotions to want their face to be seen. Unexpectedly, however, both were feeling quite remorseful about the entire situation and blamed only themselves. As Sonic turned to face Amy, he could see the tears that were streaming down her cheeks.

"Why are you sorry?" Sonic began. "After all, I was the one who recklessly drove you near into a coma..." Sonic's gaze shifted from Amy to the floor. He felt like he had been far too carefree in this situation; it worked in some, but not in cases where he had to be the teacher and know the limits of others. After all, the only person he had ever taught to do anything was himself.

"Don't be silly..." Amy sighed, the tears now stopping as she began to fiddle with one of her quills that fell sloppily in her face. "I should have been able to go faster...after all, I asked you of all people to teach me."

"Puh-lease!" The blue hedgehog scoffed at Amy's words and raced around her so that he was behind her. "As if I should expect anyone to go as quickly as me! More importantly..." Sonic started, before biting his lip with anxiety, "Is it really okay for me to still be your teacher? After all, I was so careless...egging you on to test your limits...aren't you angry?" A worried frown appeared on his face.

Amy emanated a laughter that was packed with relief. Instead of her begging Sonic to still teach her, here he was, nervous she'd be the one to fire him. All he had needed was a simple nod, smile, and giggle from Amy to know that everything between them was fine.

"But really Sonic," Amy started, "I would definitely like to get back to training as soon as possible...but less running, and more fighting!" Her stance was confident as Amy pumped out her fists as if she were in a boxing match. Even Sonic caught some of the energy that was radiated from Amy; she was just that positive and energetic. He shot her a curt nod.

"Leave the running to me...I'll teach you how to sweep a man off of his feet...literally." He winked.

"Not so hard!"

All morning the two hedgehogs were training together, but nothing had quite turned out right. No matter what she tried, Amy always put too much energy into a single blow, rendering her helpless for counterattacks. Also, her attacks rarely were able to hit the target; they were far too clumsy and uncoordinated.

"Amy, watch me!"

Yet again the blue hedgehog flawlessly landed a series of blows onto a large sandbag that backfired when hit. He managed to dodge each and every hit, landing perfect counterattacks on the dummy. Amy was speechless.

"But Sonic, I can't go that quickly..." she sighed, feeling like speed would prevent her from ever being useful.

"It's not about the speed of your feet Amy! It's about how good you are on those feet!" Sonic shot her an encouraging smile as he held a hand out for her. She had just been knocked onto the ground by the sandbag, and was feeling very self conscious. "That's a skill, Amy, not an ability."

"Alright, alright," Amy sighed, feeling like this would never work out. In the last couple of days, the pink hedgehog had run into nothing but failures. There were only small successes, which in the end resulted in more and more mistakes.

"All I need to do is show you how to move your fists!" Feeling her discouragement, Sonic offered her some much needed assistance. He sped behind her.

Placing both of his hands on hers, he suddenly found that it was hard to remember how he punched or how he did anything, and a feeling of nervousness spread throughout his body. It was something he had occasionally felt traces of from discomfort of being in physical contact with another person, but it was slightly different: it felt warm. Before he knew it, Sonic had turned as red as a tomato as he attempted to remain calm.

"Um...so...I just want you to show me first how you've been moving," he managed to spit out before settling down to feel her movements. Unbeknownst to him, Amy's cheeks were a rosy pink that blended in with her natural colors. Despite the circumstances, she did attempt to attack the sandbag once more, and moved forward with a tense jerking motion.

"Mistake numero uno," Sonic began as he regained his composure and stopped Amy's pending attack. "You need to relax a bit more Amy! Why so tense?" Amy tensed up even further at his question, but turned to face him with an honest gaze.

"Well..." she sputtered, "you had your hands on mine...and they felt warm...and I got nervous."

There was that girl again, being straightforward as ever with her feelings, even during a time that she used to get stronger and evolve from those childish feelings. Sonic felt the discomfort within him growing as he immediately distanced himself a slight bit from Amy.

"...next time try to relax." His words were incredibly hypocritical though; after all, he was far from relaxed.

Snapping out of this unusual haze, Sonic found himself surprised. He had never let himself feel so...awkward before in his life. Yet there was something about that fierce look in Amy's eyes that left him sweating and nervous, itching to see more of her feisty nature. Shaking his head, Sonic's usual smirk returned to his lips.

"Just watch how I do it, but I'll do it in slow motion this time so that you can see what I'm doing." Sonic winked at her. "Be sure to check me out while I do this too...I don't do slow very often!" Amy rolled her eyes at his last comment, even though she probably would be checking him out.

As she watched him approach the pseudo enemy once more, there was something she hadn't noticed before about Sonic: his attacks were all focused and patterned rather than the reckless fighting style she thought that he had developed over the years. Each punch he delivered left quite an impact in the sandbag, to the point where a hole had formed in the rugged bag.

"Dang it," Sonic muttered. "I guess I taught ya too well!" His laughter rung like a bell throughout the room, and it filled Amy's head not only with his presence, but also with plans; very big plans.

Thanks to all who reviewed, and please review more if you like the story...I LOVE YOU ALL and I'll try my best to update...I shall not ditch this story! Also my goal here is to keep them in character as much as possible while still telling my own unique story...I really hope everyone likes these ideas!