When night came around, Sonic was still up in the tree overseeing the pool, snoozing. It was getting late and everyone seemed to be heading off to bed when his communicator began to ring, waking him up completely. He opened it to see it was from an unknown caller, but out of curiosity, he answered it anyway.

'Sonic, here.'

'Sonic, it's Eggman.'

'Ugh, what do you want Egghead?' Sonic said, rolling his eyes.

'Don't roll your eyes at me, pest. This is serious!' Eggman spat.

'Real serious or you-think-you-know-what-you're-doing serious?' Sonic smirked.

'Dammit, Hedgehog, don't push your luck! Your little friend Cream is in some serious trouble!'

'What now?'

'I was doing some calculations on the machine I used to trap Cream. In it's malfunction-'

'It didn't malfunction! You screwed up!' Sonic cut him off.

'Zip it, you brat! Do you want to know what's happening or not?!'

'Go on then.'

'I don't know what happened but something coursed through Cream that is slowly shutting down her body. The smaller the body, the less time it takes to shut down. It's-'

'Wait on, you're telling me that the heap of junk you created and trapped Cream in then sent basically turned her into Sleeping Beauty is actually killing her? All because you screwed up creating the machine in the first place?!' Sonic exclaimed, now sitting upright.

'As much as I hate to admit it but, yes.' Eggman sighed.

'But she had an episode, this fit. She started screaming in her sleep and yelling out weird stuff. Like a nightmare!' Sonic exclaimed, hoping it meant something.

'It's her body fighting to stay alive, she hasn't got long.' Eggman sighed.

'You better hope that Tikal can help Cream or I swear to God-'

'Calm down, Blue, she'll be fine. This is a one-time thing! But I'm trying to come up with an antidote.' Eggman cut him off.

'If Tikal can't help her, this antidote better work!' Sonic exclaimed before abruptly cutting off the communication.

He buried his face into his hands and sighed, wondering how he was going to tell the others that Cream was dying. Not only that, she was dying fast. If the Doctor was right, the smaller the body, the faster the machine takes it's effect. It's not hard to see that Cream is only a tiny thing. He tried to think of something positive, although all he could come up with was the fact that Eggman had actually come up with something, well, almost. They needed to find Tikal… now.

His thoughts were soon cut off when he noticed a twig snap from bellow him. He looked down to find Amy walking back out to the pool and sitting down in the lounge chair. The blue hero couldn't help but notice how sad she looked, which everyone knew wasn't her usual attitude. He was about to jump down and go inside, hoping she wouldn't notice, until she looked over her shoulder before lying down and bursting into tears. Sonic had seen her cry before, but they were usually either happy tears or tears of fear for him.
Right now, he couldn't really tell why she was crying. It was genuine though. She sat up and composed herself, turning her wails into only sobs. He had to do something, she was his friend after all. He leapt out of the tree and began walking towards her after startling her.

'Sonic?' She sniffed.

'Yeah, it's just me.' He smirked as he stopped in front of her.

'What are you still doing out here?' She asked as she tried to subtly wipe away a tear.

'I could ask you the same thing, Ames?'

Amy's eyes widened as she looked up at her hero. The night lights had begun glowing, and the moonlight shone through the vines and danced on the pool water, reflecting onto the two hedgehog's faces. Sonic's eyes dazzled in the light, making Amy's heart melt through her sadness. She closed her eyes before turning back to stare at her lap.

'He's really done it this time, Sonic.' She muttered, trying not to cry again.

'Who?'

'Eggman, hurting Cream. It's different when it's you or Knuckles, Shadow or Rouge, you can easily break free and take him on. It's different when it's me, I don't matter, but-'

'Why would you say that?' Sonic cut her off.

'What do you mean?' Amy asked, looking back at him.

'What makes you think you don't matter?' Sonic asked, growing angry.

'Get real, Sonic. You know as well as I do that I'm just dead weight to this team. Getting in the way when things matter the most, distracting everyone when I need to be saved yet again because I'm a target for another one of Eggman's stupid machines.' Amy rolled her eyes, allowing a tear to roll.

Sonic stared at her blankly for a minute, watching her silently beat herself up for crying in front of him. He suddenly shook his head, bringing himself back to the real world before reaching down to take both of her hands in his. He placed her hands on his shoulders before he placed his own on her waist.

'What are you doing?' She asked, surprised yet excited.

'Dancing, what does it look like?' He smirked.

'There's no music, silly?' Amy giggled.

'Pfft, I'm a professional dancer. When you're as good as me, you don't need music.' Sonic said with a cocky grin as he turned the pink hedgehog around, making her laugh.

He pulled her back into a warm embrace and continued to dance with her. He could feel her smile on his shoulder blade as their feet moved to… the silence. Although, it wasn't as silent as they thought. The sounds of trickling water, frogs croaking, insects chirping, leaves rustling, wind blowing. It was kind of magical, once the both of them could both hear it.

'Amy, this team would be nothing without you. Never forget that.' Sonic said nervous, wondering if he'd taken this too far.

'You don't mean that.' She replied, her smile fading.

'I do.' He said, making her look into his eyes. 'You're the pink, crazy, sticky, beautiful stuff that holds us all together, ya know?' Sonic chuckled.

'Beautiful?' Amy gasped. Sonic's heart skipped a beat when he realized what he'd said.

'Uh, um… Yeah, sure? Of course.' He smiled, causing her to blush.

'Cream is going to be ok, Ames. I promise.' Sonic said again.

The blue hedgehog pulled her into a small hug before resting his head on top of hers. He couldn't let her see his worried expression. The truth was, he couldn't promise that. It was merely minutes ago that he himself had learnt that one of their best friends was dying before them.

'I'm sorry, by the way.' Sonic smirked, looking at her again.

'What for?' Amy arched an eyebrow.

'I don't know. But whatever it was I did, I'm sorry, Ames.'

'Sonic, I'm upset about what you did in front of Vanessa.' Amy said breaking away from him and sitting back down.

'Vanessa?' He asked confused.

'You kissed me in front of her, just so she'd leave you alone. Not because you wanted to kiss me. You can't deny the looks everyone gave us, they were shocked. You know as well as I do it didn't mean anything.' Amy shrugged.

Sonic looked at her, more surprised than he'd ever been. She was right, he did use her to get his way, but he thought she would have enjoyed it. It did work at least, he got Vanessa off his back, now to fix things with someone far more important.

'How do you know it didn't mean anything?' Sonic shrugged, looking at the ground.

'What?' Amy asked as her eyes shot up to look up at her hero before she slowly stood up and walked towards him.

'How do you know it didn't mean something… secret?' Sonic chuckled jokingly as he pulled Amy in to dance again.

'You're an idiot.' Amy laughed, still dancing with her blue hero.

'I know.' He smirked.

The two giggled for a second longer before they stopped dancing and just stared into each other's eyes. There was something so magical, so genuine about the way they looked at each other now. Something different. Both of their smiles faltered, as if they were realizing the difference too.
Sonic cupped Amy's face in his hands while Amy rest her hands on his strong chest. He slowly moved in, he was going to do it, no backing out now.

'Sonic? Pal, you out here?' Tails called from the house.

The two hedgehogs gasped and ducked, praying the two-tailed kitsune hadn't seen them. They watched their friend look around in the doorway for a second longer before shrugging it off and walking back inside. They then let go of each other and stood up again. The moment was gone…

'I guess we should go inside, get some sleep.' Sonic said, looking at his sneakers.

'Yeah, you're probably right.' Amy agreed.

'Don't stress about Cream anymore, she's going to be just fine, ok? Promise?' Sonic asked.

'Promise.' Amy smiled.

Sonic returned her smile before walking past her, brushing his hand against hers. Amy caught her breath as she lightly felt his warm touch again. She stood still until she heard the door open and close again, knowing Sonic was inside.

She buried her face in her hands before shaking her head, trying to wake herself up from what she was sure was a dream. She turned around, took a deep breath and began to make her way to the house. She needed to get some sleep.

Yeah, like that would be happening tonight.