Okay, so this is gonna be LONG. A lot happens here. I've come up with a lot more stuff so I may have to make this a whole saga thing. Man, I hope I get more reviews - I don't want to carry on writing all this stuff when it's crap XD Rated T for language.
"Honestly, Tails, you look cute when you're all dressed up," said Cream as she and her two-tailed companion wandered into the classy bar where the heroes were meeting that evening. They were five minutes early, but Cream always made sure of that with every occasion.
Tails looked slightly uncomfortable in his bow tie. "I hate formality."
Cream smiled at him. "I know you do, but try to contain yourself for me."
Tails flinched, then glowed with love for the young woman rabbit who accompanied him. "Anything for my Dreamy Cream."
Cream pecked his cheek happily and led the way to the bar. Now she was eighteen, the legal age limit for purchasing alcohol on Mobius, (as it is in England! WOO! Sonic: Shut up, MistressMurder. Me: Okay!) she was eager to take advantage of her new adulthood. Her mother had been slightly uncomfortable with the idea, but as long as Tails and good company were with her, she would sleep peacefully tonight. It's not like Cream to get hammered at nine in the evening anyway, thought Tails.
"One Jumbled Julep and two shots of vodka please."
Or is it?
_
"And I was like LAY-DEH, LAY-DEH, LAY-DEH, OOOOH!" sang Amy at the top of her voice in the backseat of Rouge's car. "LAY-DEH, LAY-DEH, LAY-DEH, OOOOH!" Rouge and Shadow sat in the front, with faces that seemed to welcome an early death. "LAY-DEH, LAY-DEH, LAY-DEH, OOOHH! Thought you'd always be MIIIIINE, miiiiine!"
The stereo was turned off by a white bat that was on the verge of smashing the car up.
"Thank you!" Shadow breathed.
"Heeeyyy!" Amy protested. "I love that song!"
"Get a room then," Rouge threw back.
"Aw, Rouge, pleeeeaaasse?"
"She's worse than Alba," Shadow muttered. Rouge smirked.
"What was that?" Amy spluttered.
"Nothing," Shadow said, grinning darkly to himself.
"Come on, you guys, have you no taste in music whatsoever?"
"Have you no sense of decency?" asked Rouge.
"Want some Flightwish?" asked Shadow to Rouge, who seemed more than relieved at this proposition.
"Anything but this trash," she said.
"Hey!" said Amy as Shadow took liberty of putting in a symphonic metal CD into the stereo. "You can't be serious!"
Heavier, darker and more orchestrated music flooded the automobile accompanied by an operatic female voice.
"That's more like it," smiled Rouge. "Way sexier."
"You're saying Justin the Beaver isn't sexy?" Amy trilled.
"Amy, he's got a voice that convinces you that his balls haven't dropped," said Shadow.
Rouge took out some of her frustration on a nearby driver who cut in front of her with a dose of profanity.
"But Justin the Beaver is HOT!" Amy continued.
"And so's the lollipop lady," said Shadow, who seemed to be the last person on earth who could converse with an overly-bubbly pink hedgehog and keep his cool.
"Hey, you know, that's a good song!" said Amy. "Lollipop, lollipop, oh, dolly-Holly-lolly..."
"Amy, shut it!" Rouge snapped.
"Okay, fine," Amy grumbled, silencing herself at last.
"Man!" Rouge muttered. "Give her a few more years, they said. She'll grow up, they said. Well, kiss my pretty little ass Amy Rose would grow the fuck up!"
There followed a heavy silence in the car. Only the stereo buzzed with theatrical metal on a low volume. Shadow slipped a glance over to the wing mirror and caught Amy's reflection in the backseat. She looked rather stung. Once again, Rouge had gone a little too far – and she wasn't about to admit it, let alone feel sorry for it.
After observing the young hedgehog for more than a few years, Shadow had to give it to her that she had tried to grow up. She stopped hounding Sonic twenty-four-seven and she had started to quiet down when people asked her to. The death hugs were more of warm bear hugs than sudden suffocation. She had kept her feelings to herself more often; she hadn't even said a bad word to Mina at all. Granted, she did talk behind her back out of jealousy, but that was to be expected from someone who was crazily in love with someone who had engaged his affections elsewhere.
Then, six months ago, she had a relapse. Sonic proposed to Mina and the vulnerable, demanding, attention-seeking kid whom Amy had swallowed back for years started to rear her pink-quilled head once again. Not instantly. But little by little, Amy had let herself go even more, pushing everyone's limits just a bit more every day. Shadow silently admitted to himself that he felt sorry for the kid and even had the guts to convince himself that all she really needed was a decent friend – someone to mellow her out, someone to tame her, someone patient enough to ride out her stormy, childish antics. He confirmed to himself that he had gone slightly mad when he concluded that that someone was himself.
"Amy," he said softly after a long while of painful silence. Amy's head swung up a notch as Shadow handed something over to her. It was his iPod. In the centre of the screen, amongst the Carolyn Cancer, Sisters of Heresy and Effervescence was a Taylor the Swift album – now playing. Amy smiled in gratitude at the black hedgehog who raised his eyebrows with a small smile at her in the wing mirror.
_
A quarter of the way through the night, Cream drank steadily from her only shot and cocktail. Tails steadfastly made it through one vodka shot, five tequila shots and a Pina Colada. Knuckles had a double G&T and four tequila shots while Sonic settled with a tequila shot, a Pina Colada and a catch up with his best friend (he enjoyed it when alcohol loosened Tails' tongue a bit). Rouge ordered her usual dry martini and sat back with Shadow as Amy, Cream and Mina chattered away about Mina's upcoming wedding. Rouge rolled her eyes.
"So infantile," she sighed.
"What is?" asked Shadow, sipping a Bacardi and coke.
Rouge pouted and fluttered her eyelashes stupidly in an over-the-top imitation of the three girls. "Look at me, I'm getting married, look at me, I'm the flower girl, let's all get some pretty flowers and dance around all happy and in love – blah, blah, blah."
Shadow grunted.
"They're such assholes. All a wedding is is a party and they're acting like it's the second coming – Jesus Christ."
"You sound jealous," Shadow put in, unabashed.
Rouge rolled her eyes again.
"I'm sorry, I almost choked and died there. I sound what now?"
"Jealous," Shadow repeated. "You're only making fun of them because you don't have a normal life like they do."
"I think The Ultimate Life Form is only speaking from personal experiences and neglects to realise that I am perfectly satisfied with my life. I don't want a normal life. Why should I live up to anyone's expectations when I can just do whatever the hell I want to?"
"Oh yeah? How many jewels have you stolen this month?"
"How much sex have you had this year?"
Shadow was silent. Then he shrugged and let Rouge have her victory as the girls in the corner suddenly broke out into tipsy, girlish laughter.
_
Amy felt herself going crimson with laughter. It was a while since she felt truly comfortable amongst her friends and she had alcohol to thank for that.
"So then Sally comes in drunk as a skunk to find her packed suitcases in the kitchen!" Mina laughed, prompting another round of laughter among the female trio.
"What a horrible surprise for the little princess!" Cream exclaimed, fiddling with the little pink bow on the neckline of her white spaghetti-strap dress.
"Oh, she was surprised, lemme tell you!" Mina giggled. "She was appalled. Sonic kicked her out and she spent the next two hours bawling outside the door 'I'm the princess! You can't do this to me!'"
Amy split into giggles. "Poor little princess!"
"I thought I'd never say this, but I think she got what she was asking for," said Cream.
"Well, once a cheater, always a cheater," said Mina. "She's a clever one, though."
"What?" Amy shrieked.
"Hey, you have to give it to her that she is very clever!"
Amy hesitated. "Yeah, I guess..."
"She's extremely manipulative. All through her and Sonic's relationship, she was all about flipping things around, making him feel sorry for her, making him feel guilty – she had him wrapped around her little finger."
"Good riddance!" said Amy.
"It was you who made him see that," Cream smiled at Mina.
Mina blushed. "I just didn't want him to get hurt."
"You didn't want to see her stab him us all in the back one more time. I woulda done the same thing!" said Amy.
Cream raised her glass. "To best friends who stay together and don't stab each other in the back."
"I'll drink to that!" said Amy, clinking her glass against the others and drinking. Just then, a waitress popped over with a glass and put it on the table.
"This is from the woman on table fifteen," she said, and left without another word.
The three friends stared at it. It was vodka on ice with lime. They looked at each other. They all looked around. They huddled.
"Where's table fifteen?" Amy whispered urgently.
"This is table five," Cream pointed out.
"Scan the area," Mina ordered. The girls idly scoped the scenery, pretending not to be interested much. However, something caught Cream's eye and it made her jaw drop and her stomach plummet into her summer sandals.
"Mina," she whispered. She had the mongoose's full attention immediately. "Acorn Princess at one o'clock."
Sure enough, at the other side of the bar, a princess named Sally sat in what appeared to be a fur coat, sipping delicately from a cocktail glass. Their eyes met, causing Mina's gut to automatically tangle. Slowly, Mina drew her focus to the vodka that waited patiently in front of her.
"Playin' it cool, are we?" she muttered.
"Mina. What is it?" Amy whispered.
"It's vodka on ice with lime – the same drink she slipped me a tranquiliser into to try and win Sonic back when we were first dating. She very famously failed to get away with it. Sonic's fault, of course."
"What are you gonna do?" Cream whispered.
"I think you know," said Mina, a steely look coming into her eyes.
"Mina, no," said Amy. "Don't start anything."
"Hey, I'm not a spoilt princess – I ain't gonna," said Mina.
"You're gonna drink it, aren't you?" said Cream.
Amy gasped. "You've already had six shots, a Sex on the Beach and a Blue Lagoon in the last hour and a half – that's gotta be how many units?"
"High tolerance, babe," Mina murmured. "Very high tolerance.
Mina locked eye contact with the princess, who tilted her cocktail towards her and sipped, a sly grin on her smug face meaning the war was on. Mina grabbed the glass, swung her head back and chugged the ice-cold drink down. It burned her throat and tasted like gasoline, but she downed it in one swoop. She held the empty glass triumphantly for a second before bringing it down to the table with a small clatter. Amy and Cream waited anxiously with astonished faces.
"Nothin' to lose, now bring it...bitch."
Producing an air of impression, Sally got up and began to make her way over to their table.
"Mina, why did you drink it?" Cream whispered quickly.
"Yeah, Mina, it might have been spiked, knowing her!" added Amy.
"Yeah, well, bite me, princess. My hedgehog is secured." Sally came over with a scary smile. "Buckle up, guys," Mina advised.
The princess stood before them, a fiery glare in her eyes but a cool composure. She had obviously been ready for this.
"Evening, ladies," she said coolly.
Amy and Cream were lost for words. Not so Mina.
"We were just talking about you," she said sweetly.
Aaaaah! What's gonna happen? I know! READ ON! :D More chapters coming up!