Oh my god guys I'm so sorry it's literally been way too long since I updated. I told you a week or two and it's been four. It's just that I have like no time ever during school time, and it sucks. I feel especially bad, since I left it at a cliffhanger. I won't take as long to update anymore I hope. I know it's only been a month but I try to update as much as frequently as I can, especially for you loyal followers and reviewers. In all honesty, people don't probably care enough about this story to complain if it takes a few extra weeks, but I'm overly dramatic so whatever.

So part of the reason it took a long time to update is because I was working on Drenched in Discoveries. It's a oneshot that I worked really hard on, and I really really would appreciate it if you checked it out, since I think it's some of my best work. Yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say. Enjoy the update!

Late Happy Thanksgivakkah! (It's a thing I swear. Chanukah and Thanksgiving on the same day deserves a special name)

Chapter 3: 101 Bad Ways to Catch Your Crush's Eye

Tails stared blankly at the furious echidna before him. He opened his mouth in a confused manner, but hesitated. It didn't help.

"I SAID, WHERE THE HELL IS SHE," Knuckles shouted once more. "IS SHE HIDING OUT HERE? I'LL DESTROY HER! AND YOU FOR HIDING HER!"

Sonic blinked and stood up slowly, careful not to make any sudden movements. The sight of Knuckles standing before him, fuming furiously with his fists clenched so tight that his gloves were beginning to tear, it was somewhere between terrifying and hilarious. Sonic bit back a nervous giggle and carefully asked, with a soothing tone in his voice as if speaking to a child having a tantrum, "Who exactly are you looking for, buddy?"

Tails watched in fascination as a expression of confusion flashed across his face, and if it should have been obvious. Clearly, having anger issues didn't help his sense of logic. Then the fury returned. "ROUGE!" He screamed, "THAT STUPID BAT TOOK MY MASTER EMERALD AND RAN OFF AGAIN. THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THIS MONTH," he ranted. "SHE SHOULD KNOW BY NOW, I GET IT BACK EVERYTIME!" Tails thought he heard softer undertone to his shouts, something unfamiliar to himself. He had heard it before when Knuckles was complaining about other tricks Rouge had played on him.

Sonic took a few steps towards Knuckles cautiously, testing the water gently. He began to reach for Knuckles shoulder, and Tails felt a twinge of jealousy in the pit of his stomach, but Knuckles' throat resonated with a low growl and the blue blur snapped his wrists back, holding them up for Knuckles to see.

"Woah there bud, no need to be so hostile just because your crush has run off with some rock," he joked. He received a deathly glare in return. Tails kind of expected Sonic to burst out in flames. "Listen, I get that your worried about the emerald and all, but I'm sure it'll pop up sooner or later. You know, everytime Rouge takes it, she always seems to somehow ends up finding her way back to you. Don't you notice any pattern here? She wants you to find her," he explained, frustrated that he still had to explain these things to Knuckles.

The guardian stood there for a few moments, trying to process the information but succeeding about as quickly as internet explorer on a windows system. Tails stepped up to Sonic's side quietly. "Either way, she's not here Knuckles. You're gonna have to check elsewhere." The hedgehog and the fox dared not a single breath, as they were in such anticipation and apprehension of how Knuckles was going to react when he finally put the pieces together. Would he be happy that Rouge seems to like being with him, or angry that she had to steal the Master Emerald to do it. They were interrupted first by a banging at the doors, accompanied by a silky female voice.

"Oh Sooooniicccc! Is that silly Knucklehead in there?" the voice called. "I seem to have found the Master Emerald that he must have misplaced"

Sonic and Tails went completely pale, and exchanged looks of utter fear. Of all the places for Rouge and Knuckles to have one of their fights, why did it have to be here? Tails could have sworn that he heard the sound of a vein popping as Knuckles turned a brand new shade of blood red in absolute fury. He marched to the front door, stamping hard enough to leave marks on the ground. By the time his fingers clenched the doorknob, Tails and Sonic had dived behind the sofa for cover.

Knuckles flung the door open, shockingly without snapping it in two. There stood Rouge, leaning heavily on the master emerald, which was gathering a thin layer of snow on top of it with the flurry drifting lazily through the air. She herself was in her regular attire of a low-cut top, though it must have been freezing out there. She had a rather bored look on her face at the moment, probably dramatized to piss off her fiery victim. A yawn and a wink to the furious Echidna before her nearly sent him over the edge. "Oh, hey there Red. You should really watch where you put this thing, someone might try to...steal it," she spoke seductively, putting extra emphasis on the last two words. That did it.

If anyone within a ten mile radius hadn't been awake before, they sure were now from Knuckles' shouts. He lay into Rouge with no restraint at all, letting out string after string of swears and death wishes for the pale bat. He yelled until his face was purple from so much yelling. Throughout all of it, she wore a simple smile as if it were somehow mildly humorous. When Knuckles finally trailed off, his bulky chest was heaving heavily. Rouge glanced behind him to the two witnesses of the scene and frowned.

"Oh look, now you've gone and scared the kiddo," she pouted playfully. Knuckles checked over his shoulders at Tails, who had crawled over to Sonic and buried his face in the hero's chest in terror. Sonic was so entranced with the yelling he had barely noticed. Now that the attention was drawn to him, Tails pushed himself away in embarrassment and hid face

Knuckles grinded his teeth together. He took one long deep breath, and managed to calm himself at least a little now that he got all his screams out. "That's not the point! You stole my Emerald and had the nerve to peg it on my, claiming that I'm the clumsy one," he declared. A lightbulb went off in his head and his eyes narrowed. For once in his life, Knuckles had figured something out. "What's your game girl. I know you want that Emerald for yourself. So why return it to me? You're up to something," he growled.

Rouge smirked mischievously. "Well well well, didn't expect you to figure that much out. I guess you could say I'm after something much better than a jewel," she hinted, and threw in a girly secretive giggle for effect. "But you're not gonna find out just yet. What would be the fun in that?"

Knuckles continued glaring. "Why you sick-" he began, before being cut off by a brand new voice.

"So are you two done here? Rouge and I really must be going."

All eyes turned to the other side the Master Emerald, where Shadow stood leaning nonchalantly against the gem. His intense fiery eyes met Knuckles' threateningly, who was caught totally off guard. He stammered in suprise. "Why-I mean how-erm, when..."

"Did I get here?" Shadow finished, looking extremely unentertained. "I've been listening to your childish bickering the entire time," he explained coldly. "And if you really must know, Rouge and I were just off to visit GUN. They like us to check in every once in a while so they know we're not up to anything," he gritted his teeth slightly. "Especially with all her..antics"

Rouge shrugged indifferently. "You heard the boy. I've gotta get going," Shadow glared at her, but it lacked the usual harshness.

"Don't call me a boy," he ordered. "I assure you that I am much more than a boy." All he got in return was a giggle.

"Fine fine, you're definitely not a boy," she laughed. "Let's roll then. No use in sticking around here with an irrational Echidna."

Shadow nodded, face stoic. "I agree whole-heartedly."

The two turned to walk away and Knuckles shook with frustration. "WAIT," he called after them.

Rouge swiveled around in her place and half-grinned. "What is it, Red? Have a problem with us leaving?" She inquired maliciously.

"Uh, no. It's nothing..." Knuckles flushed in embarrassment. He really hadn't realized why he stopped them. After they were out of view, he slapped his forehead a few times. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," he muttered, staring at the nearly covered tracks in the snow before him.

Behind him, Sonic and Tails stood in awe. They had been creeping up slowly to get a better view, and it was like they just witnessed something out of a soap opera. Neither dared say something to Knuckles yet. They were both too scared. Finally Sonic spoke.

"Um, Knuckles, wanna close the door? In case you haven't noticed, it's been wide open this whole time and all the heat's escaping from the house..."

Knuckles reacted slowly. He rotated to look them and Tails slid behind his best friend nervously. But when he spoke, he was totally calmed.

"Yeah, I should probably get going and bring this bad boy back to Angel Island," he told them, patting the master emerald like it was his child (typical). "Sorry for barging in and all," he apologized.

Sonic was clearly surprised that Knuckles was so cool after being so angry just 5 minutes ago, but he still smiled politely. Any other time he would have made fun of Knuckles for apologizing to him, but he just brushed it all off as nothing. "Naw, it's totally cool bud. You sure you don't want some cocoa before you go or something?" He offered, always one to put kindness above all.

"No thanks, if anything, I need to cool down now. Hot chocolate wouldn't exactly help me out with that," Knuckles laughed. On that note, he stepped out into the snow. Just before he closed the door, he had one last thing to say. "Sorry if I scared ya Tails. I can get a little...excited sometimes, heh." He explained. Tails nodded in appreciation. He wanted to say that he wasn't scared, but that would just be a lie. He pulled the door shut and Tails and Sonic could hear the sound of a particular emerald being dragged away. They also heard a muffled greeting. "Hey Amy, how ya doing," was the last thing they heard Knuckles say.

Oh no, Tails thought. Here she comes. It's just person after person around here. Clearly Sonic was thinking the same thing, as exhibited by the look on his face. Would she be normal today, or would she be flipping out on Sonic? No one could ever guess. She was actually very pleasant when she wasn't trying to woo Sonic, but when she was, well you didn't really wanna be around for that.

The truth was, Amy really did love Sonic. The issue was, Amy was bad at expressing her love for Sonic. Tails knew that deep down she cared intensely for him. But the thing was, it had started so early in her life that she hadn't been able to express it at first, so she flipped and smothered him. After experiencing rejection, it became clear that she thought that there was no other way to attract someone than her way. No one ever taught her how normal girls go about getting a boyfriend, as they saw her as a lost cause. So really, it wasn't that she was crazy, it was that she didn't know how to express herself.

At the moment, this girl was just outside of Tails' and Sonic's house for a drop by. Before either of the residents could figure out a quick escape, the clear, pristine ring of the doorbell rang out through the house. Sonic sighed and stepped to the door to open it.

Amy was dressed in a pink jacket to match her fur and a pair of jeans. Judging from the fact that she jumped on top of Sonic and tried to force several kisses on him while going on about how she loved him so much, Tails thought that she must be determined to get Sonic today. But that was only a guess.

"Agh, Amy! I need to be able to breath!" Sonic managed out. She giggled and released him

"Sorry, I was just so excited to see you today!" She sang "I was hoping we could hang out today," she continued, nearly shy.

Sonic smiled gently. "It's great to see you and your enthusiasm too, Amy," he told her. "And I'm sorry but I'm busy today. Maybe some other day."

Amy's cheery face suddenly turned venemous. "Why can't you hang out with me, Sonic?" I had it all planned out," she pouted. "We were gonna have such a fun day.." Her face contorted into some sort of girly disappointment.

"Uhm...well I was going to do some chores, but having so many visitors left me with no time for that," he began. "But then Tails and I were gonna go somewhere. I need to show him something," he yanked Tails to his side, who had been slowly edging away. Tails grinned weakly, just praying Amy wouldn't blame him for taking up her precious Sonic's time. Together, they looked like two children being scolded by a teacher.

Amy glared at the youngest of the three, but then smiled back at Sonic. "I'm sure you can hang out with Tails another day, can't you? You two live together, you see eachother every day," she said. "I was so looking forward to today.." She wore a crestfallen mask.

Sonic was beginning to feel bad for her, but he really didn't want to hang out with her. She probably was going to bring him to a bunch of romantic, goopy places, and he just really wanted to hang out with Tails today. And if he didn't get out now, she'd never stop bothering him until he gave in. So he made an executive decision for himself and Tails. To run.

With one swift moment Sonic had grabbed Tails and ducked away from Amy out the door. Even in Snow he kept up his famous speed, and he rushed off into the morning before Amy finished processing what had just happened.

After they were gone, Amy stood helplessly in the open door of the empty house of her love. She sighed at another failed attempt to win him over. She would never show it to anyone else, but every rejection really killed her inside. A single lonely tear fought it's way onto her cheek. It would remain there until it froze and it would continue to remain frozen all throughout the empty, lonely day.