After a long night, Amy woke up the next morning to find Cosmo and Rouge's beds empty. She sat up and looked around while she stretched, wondering where they could've gotten to. She stood up and checked on Cream, nothing out of the ordinary. After she pecked Cream of the forehead, she walked out into the dining room to find everyone at the table having breakfast. She was startled to find everyone staring at her when she walked in.

'Hey there, kiddo.' Shadow said casually as he sipped on some orange juice.

'How'd you sleep, Amy?' Cosmo asked.

'Morning everyone. Uh, fine thanks, Cosmo.' Amy smiled before taking a seat herself.

'Good news, guys. Thanks to Summer, we'll be able to head out today.' Tails smiled.

'Really?' Knuckles said, his eyes wide in confusion.

'Not really thanks to me, I just helped. I was asking Tails for some help on my metals and engineering study and he was showing me some example on the ship. I just pointed something out and before we knew it we got to fixing it.' Summer smiled.

'Is that so?' Rouge asked, eyeing off Cosmo in her peripheral vision.

'You didn't strike me as a mechanic, Summer?' Cosmo smiled.

'No one guesses it.' She smiled back.

'My Summer is the brightest girl I know, I'm very proud of her.' Ariana bragged, making everyone smile.

'Where's Sonic?' Amy asked after a few minutes silence.

'He had an early breakfast and then went for a run, he'll be back soon.' Tail said before scoffing down some grapes.

Amy simply nodded to acknowledge Tails' comment before going back to drinking her tea. Seconds later, the Blue Blur himself burst in the front door to bid everyone good morning. His usual cheerful, cocky grin plaster over his muzzle, that was right up until his eyes set on Amy. His smile instantly disappeared before he quickly tried to find anywhere to look except her.

'Hey, Sonic. We should be ready to go soon after breakfast.' Tails smiled.

'Sounds good, pal. Couldn't have done it without you and Summer here!' Sonic's smile returned as he gestured to the young dog.

'It was really nothing. It will be a shame to see you all leave though.' She sighed.

'Agreed, you must come back and visit sometime. You're always welcome here, all of you.' Ariana said with a large, tired smile.

'Thank you, ma'am.' Cosmo bowed her head.

Soon after breakfast, the gang said their goodbyes to Summer and Ariana. They promised they would be back soon, bringing Cream when she was well enough to travel so she could meet them. Ariana packed them a basket of food for them all to travel with and Amy and Cosmo couldn't help but hug the elderly women for her kindness and hospitality.

They finally began walking, once again traipsing through the thick scrub to get back to the Tornado. They all began walking together, Shadow's turn to carry Cream. Eventually the girls began to lag behind and out of earshot from the boys.

'Amy?' Rouge asked.

…

'Amy?'

…

'Yo, space cadet!' She exclaimed.

'Huh?' Amy snapped back to reality.

'Trust Amy to answer to that.' Cosmo giggled.

'Something on your mind there, Hun?' Rouge questioned.

'What? No? Why would you think that?' Amy spat out faster than she intended.

'Plenty of reasons. The zoning out, the staring at the ground, the audible sighs and the depressing facials.' Cosmo said with a lop-sided smile.

'I don't know what you're talking about.' Amy huffed, her nose now in the air.

'You might as well tell us now, you know.' Cosmo shrugged.

'I have nothing to tell you.'

'Bullshit, Amy.' Rouge rolled her eyes.

'You wouldn't believe me if I told you, anyway.' Amy huffed again.

'Well, at least we've established there is something?' Cosmo smiled.

'Humour me?' Rouge snickered.

Amy turned her head to see her two friend's eyes nothing short of super glued to her face. She was kidding herself if she thought they were going to give in, Rouge in particular. She let out a sigh before shaking her head, still trying to accept the fact it wasn't a dream.

'Last night, I went out to the pool, just to be alone.' Amy began.

'So that's where you went?' Cosmo said, more to herself.

'Anyway, as it turns out Sonic was still out there from earlier that evening. He leapt down from the tree noticing I was…' Amy trailed off, not wanting to tell them she was upset.

'Noticing you were what?' Rouge arched an eyebrow.

'Noticing I was there. Anyway, long story short he knew I was feeling down about Cream so… so…' Amy trailed off again, beginning to smile.

'What happened?!' rouge and Cosmo exclaimed in sync.

'He took my hands and we began dancing, just to sounds of everything around us.'

'How romantic!' Cosmo exclaimed.

'How clichéd.' Rouge snickered.

'Anyway! He said he was sorry for whatever he had done to make me upset, even though he still didn't know what it was.'

'Did you tell him?' Cosmo asked.

'Eventually. I told him it was because of what happened in front of Vanessa and he shouldn't have done it because he didn't mean it.'

'Yikes, what did he say to that?' Rouge asked.

'This is where you won't believe me.' Amy sighed.

'Do tell!' Rouge asked curiously.

'He said, 'How do you know I didn't mean it?'' Amy smiled.
Cosmo and Rouge's jaws almost hit the ground before they linked arms with the pink hedgehog.

'Then what happened?!' Cosmo asked.

'We continued dancing until…'

'Until?!'

'We were about to kiss.'

'KISS?!' The pair screeched simultaneously.

'Shhhh! But we didn't. Tails came out looking for Sonic, so we hid. Just like that the moment was over. He said goodnight and went inside, after making sure I was ok about Cream, of course.' Amy smirked.

'You're freaking kidding me…' Rouge gritted her teeth.

'We haven't been able to look each other in the eye all morning, let alone say two words to each other.' Amy admitted.

'You know you'll have to eventually, Amy.' Cosmo said as she placed a friendly hand on her shoulder.

'I know, that's what scares me.'

As Rouge and Cosmo tried to cheer up their pink friend, further ahead of them a blue hedgehog was being interrogated by three of his friends. The only difference being, they weren't exactly as comforting as the girls, aside from Tails. They prefer the 'tease until you bleed' approach.

'That's the corniest thing I've ever heard, and it came from you.' Shadow grimaced.

'Surely something happened after that though?' Knuckles smirked.

'Well, um…'

'It did, didn't it?!'

'We sound like a group of bitchy girls.' Sonic sighed.

'Spill your guts.' Shadow snickered.

'I leaned in to kiss her.' Sonic bowed his head. He couldn't believe he was telling these dorks.

Shadow and Knuckles stopped walking for a second to give each other a brief and blank stare before bursting into hysterics. They jogged to catch up to the other two, Knuckles clutching his stomach and Shadow trying not to drop Cream. Tails rolled his eyes, Sonic was almost as red as the echidna who was trying not to fall over.

'What happened then?' Knuckles giggled.

'You two are so immature.' Tails smirked.

'At least I had the balls to do it, Knucklehead. Rouge wears the pants in your relationship.' Sonic smiled proudly before Tails and Shadow began to laugh.

'Bite me, Sonic.' Knuckles sighed, admitting defeat.

'Alright, alright, enough games. What happened?' Tails asked.

'You came out, we had to hide and the moment was over.'

'Shit. Sorry.' Tails blushed.

'It's alright.' Sonic smiled.

'If it makes you feel any better, I had an awkward encounter with Summer last night while I was showing her the Tornado.'

'How so?' Shadow asked as Cream snuggled up into his chest.

'She started hitting on me, although I wasn't sure, then-'

'How can you not be sure?!' Knuckles asked, trying not to laugh.

'Oh, I was sure when she tried to attack herself to my face.' Tails bowed his head.

'Classy.' Shadow smirked.

'Delicate.' Sonic added.

'I'm just thankful we've left. We need to get to Tikal… today.' Tails stated firmly.