"Amy... Amy!... AMY!"

Blaze took in a deep gasp as she sat up from her bed violently. Her eyes were widened and she tried to calm down. Silver sat up quickly next to her, holding her to him as he looked at her concerningly, "Blaze? What's wrong?" Blaze looked over at Silver and let out a sigh of relief. She was only dreaming. She hugged Silver tightly and buried her face into his chest, forcing back the tears that dotted the corner of her eyes.

"Nothing, it was just a nightmare..."

Silver's hand traced circles on her back to try and calm her down more. "Go to sleep. I'll be here when you wake up in the morning, I won't let anything happen to you." She nodded. A few minutes passed and the hands stopped stroking her fur. Silver's chest rose and fell in a peaceful rhythm. He had fallen back asleep. Blaze quickly and carefully pulled his hand off as she sat up and walked out to the living room. She went and sat in front of the window and stared out into the city light as she wrapped herself up in a blanket from the couch. She recalled the nightmare quite vividly.

Amy's tears were filled with hurt and anger and tears as she accusingly pointed a finger to the purple cat. She felt betrayed.

"I know what you did! How could you do something like that to me? I thought you were the best sister I could ask for! But what kind of sister would do something like this?"

Blaze's yellow eyes narrowed as she focused on one star in the sky. Amy, Sonic, and her, had always grown up together. They were never apart and their relationship was great. There were no secrets between the trio, at least, that's probably what Amy and Sonic thought. Blaze at one point had wanted to marry a man and was rejected by her own parents.

"I will not allow this relationship." Her father had spoken quickly, not wanting to linger on the conversation much longer.

"But why?" The Blaze staring up at her parents had been the high school Blaze who was soon to graduate.

"There... is an arranged marriage set for you." Blaze's eyes widened with anger, who were they to pull this kind of stunt and not tell her about it until so close to graduation?

"Who?" Blaze whispered.

"Sonic the hedgehog."

Blaze had closed her eyes. Who would willingly marry that idiot? She tried to talk her parents out of the arranged marriage but they held firm. She tried multiple things to get out of it, but nothing worked. On top of that, she only saw Sonic as a friend. She didn't want to be forced to marry him. At one point, Blaze had thought about disappearing off the map when she overheard a conversation...

"Sonic, I need you're help, but you need to keep this a secret."

"Sure Ames, what's up?"

Blaze was naturally wanting to know as well, as it was in her curiousity to know what was so secretive that Amy wouldn't confide in her own sister. She peeked around the corner and saw Amy reciting something on paper, Sonic standing over her shoulder reading it as she said it out loud. Blaze could instantly tell it was a love letter. Sonic had given her a few suggestions, so she ended up reciting it again. Blaze this time had recorded the speech on her phone. After all was said and done, Amy thanked Sonic for his advice and offered to treat him to chilli dogs. He laughed and agreed quickly. Blaze disappeared before they could see her and left for her home.

When she got home, she quickly threw her phone on her desk and hooked it up to her laptop. She adjusted and clipped some of the recording to make it sound like Amy had been confessing to Sonic. Then she copied the finalized version onto a pen recorder. She smiled and grabbed the pen and quickly made way for Sonic's house. She knew that Sonic and Amy had gone out for chilli dogs, so she took this opportunity for herself. She walked up to Sonic's mother quickly, then played the recording that was on the pen.

"Please, keep this a secret from them. I don't want them to know that I'm the one who was behind it."

That is what Blaze had asked Sonic's mom, to make sure Blaze could enjoy her freedom and still have a sister who loved her. She was so happy when later on she had overheard Sonic's mom telling Blaze's mom that she intended for Sonic to marry Amy, not Blaze. But shortly after that, Blaze started having these nightmares of an angry Amy. So she tried to make up for her wrong doings by buying Amy things and being good to her. But when she discovered that Amy and Shadow were messing around behind Sonic's back, she had the pen in her purse. She left it in the back of Shadow's car as a warning. No matter how much Shadow loved Amy, he must let her go!


Amy puffed out her cheeks as she glared at the door. She shoved the keys right in while holding the present in her other hand. She turned the handle and pushed the door open and strode over to a surprised looking hedgehog who had been smoking. She furrowed her eyebrows and then quickly turned to shut the door behind her. Then she gave Shadow an angry glare once again. He glared back, "How did you get in?"

She didn't answer and instead approached him quicker, tossing the wrapped up box at him. He caught it quickly and looked at it. She turned away from him, "It's for you." He glared down at it, then back up at her. His eyebrows furrowed even more. She felt saddened again. Why had he gone back to being cold to her? She looked down at him and gave a sad smile, "Happy Birthday."

His ears twitched and he froze. His red eyes softened as he looked up into her green ones, "W-What?" When she saw him calm down a bit, she felt herself relax. She smiled a real smile again.

"Happy birthday, Shadow."

They were simple words, but to him they felt so foreign. When was the last time someone had told him Happy Birthday? He opened his mouth to retort, but couldn't find anything to say. It was like he was choking on air. His hand grasped hers as he looked up at her curiously, "How did you know it was my birthday?"

"I overheard you and Tails in the study room the other day." Amy confessed. "That's how I knew."

He pulled her closer to him as he looked at the box in thought, "What's in it?" She let out a little giggle.

"Surprises like this are more meaningful if you know what's in them after you open the box."

"Really?" He asked light heartedly. He leaned against her as he opened the present between the two of them. Her face flushed as he practically purred against her. Inside the wrapping was a golden velvet box, and inside it was a tie pin. His eyes widened momentarily. When was the last time he received something for his birthday? Yet, here he was, receiving one from the woman he had loved for years. "Thank you, Rose."

"I-I didn't know if you would like it or not." Amy said quickly, "So I picked something that I thought you would like... not knowing if you would dislike it or not." She was aware of their closeness and cherished it. She wanted to be this close to him.

"I like it... I love it." He put the case back over the box and set it aside. He held her hands quickly and took a deep breath as he looked to her with a saddness in his eyes. "It's been a long time since I celebrated my birthday." Amy frowned. She had always seen Shadow at Sonic's birthday parties but never knew any of Shadow's.

"You don't... ever celebrate your birthday?" She asked quietly.

"I never had a reason to." He replied.

She knew that Shadow and Sonic were step brothers, and she knew Shadow's mom was hiding under the radar. Even if he was an illegitamate heir, he was still Sonic's brother. Right? "What about Uncle? Didn't he ever celebrate your birthday?"

There was a scoff as Shadow looked up at Amy. He put a hand through her pink quills and carressed her cheek, "Sonic's father, my father, would have wanted me to never have been born to begin with."

Amy's heart ached all of a sudden.

"But it's fine, I've gotten used to it."

She never knew that the hedgehog she loved so deeply had a heart breaking story. "In the past, you had no one there to celebrate with... but now, you have me." His heart and mind went into a frenzy. She leaned up and kissed his cheek, "In the future, I'd like to celebrate all your birthdays with you."

Shadow pulled her to him, holding her against his chest by wrapping both arms around her waist and digging his face into her neck. She smiled and hugged him back.

"Let me hug you for a while... just a while..." He whispered.

That night they held each other peacefully. They didn't make love or have sex, they just spent the night content in each other's arms.


The next morning Shadow had awoken in a good mood. He was up before Amy as usual. He leaned down after changing into his suit and kissed her on the temple. A small smile broke out on his face as he left for downstairs, attatching his new pin to his shirt. He waved to Vanilla as he went out the door then hopped in his car and drove off. Vanilla blinked, a bit taken aback by his warm gesture.

Later on Amy had woken up. She and Vanilla had spent hours setting up the decorations and getting the cake ready before he returned. Amy smiled as she and Vanilla started making a simple cheesecake. Amy wasn't as great of a cook as Vanilla was but she did her best. In the end the cake turned out looking great, hopefully it would taste as good also. Amy wrote "Happy Birthday Shadow" in red icing and then put the cake away in the freezer.

"Shadow will definitley be happy with your surprise, Amy." Vanilla said with a smile.

Amy smiled as she shut the freezer door and turned to Vanilla, "Why don't you take the day off and come back tomorrow afternoon?"

"Ah, yes, you and Mr. Shadow will want to have your privacy won't you? Those birthday kinks of his must come from somewhere." Vanilla winks as Amy blushes head to toe. "I'll clean up and then pack my bags and head home."

Amy smiled a bit, "T-Thank you, Vanilla..." She rushed upstairs to quickly look for a cute outfit to wear, since Sonic's celebration would also be later that night.


That night, Shadow had been so busy at the office he had finally made time to leave. Tails was behind him as they quickly walked down the hallway. "We need to get ready for Sonic's celebration." Shadow said to him. Just then he saw the familiar sight of a purple cat tail in the hallway and glared. "Give me five minutes. Meet me in the car." He followed the tail into Silver's office room and wasn't surprised to see Blaze sitting on the edge of Silver's chair, glaring up at Shadow.

"What?"

He threw the pen recorder at her. It hit her arm and landed on the floor beneath her. Her turned and walked out of the door when she stood up quickly and barked at him, "Shadow!" He stopped momentarily and turned to look at her over his shoulder, not showing a concerned expression. "You heard what she said didn't you?" Blaze questioned. He didn't respond but kept eye contact. Blaze eyed the pin on his shirt. How could he still wear it to work knowing that he was betraying Sonic?

"If you heard the message, then you should already know that Sonic and Amy are in love. You need to leave her alone. You're hurting her and Sonic! You're just a third party here!" He turned and glared at her but bit his tongue. He turned to walk out the door. She wasn't done though, she grabbed his arm, "Their bond will be tighter than yours."

"Listen Blaze, it has always been clear that Amy doesn't love me." He smacked her hand away from his arm, surprising her as he spoke, "I will make sure no matter what happens, that nothing bad happens to Amy. And aside from that, I willingly love Amy. I always have and I always will. I don't expect anything in return from her for it." His eyes looked at her lower as if she was an unimportant bug he could step on. Then he turned and took large strides out the door, leaving Blaze in the background with her jaw dropped.