Chapter 11

Silver put a finger to his lips as the girls and Shadow filed in. "Don't wake her up, she just fell asleep," he whispered, motioning to the sleeping cat snuggled into him.

Amy nodded. "I'll be sleeping in the back room where the hammock is, if anyone needs me," she whispered back. Rouge and Sticks nodded. "Shadow, you take the couch, and Rouge and Sticks can share my bed. Silver, blankets are in the closet behind you if you need them."

Silver bowed his head gratefully. Everyone headed to their respective sleeping locations, except for Shadow, who hung back in the living room.

"I can sleep elsewhere, if necessary," he offered.

"No need," Silver shook his head. He carefully stood, picking Blaze up, bridal-style. She didn't even stir. "We'll sleep in the dining room."

"We?" Shadow asked, raising an eyebrow and grinning.

"You're dumber than I thought if you really think I'm going anywhere when she's like this," Silver hissed. Shadow shrugged, and the silver hedgehog disappeared back into the dining room.

And now he was alone. That was usually the way Shadow preferred things, but not tonight. Tonight, he felt… lonely.

"Finally," Amy exhaled, laying down for the first time in what seemed like forever. She'd changed into her usual pajamas, a purple cropped tank and a pair of black-and-white men's boxers (hey, they were cheaper than women's). Her hair was pulled back into its usual messy ponytail, and she angrily tried to brush the loose strands out of her face, only to have them flop back. She sighed. Taming her hair was never easy.

So instead, she lay back in the hammock, breathing out and closing her eyes. She was exhausted. She hadn't gotten any sleep since-

"You know, you really oughta lock your windows," a voice said. Amy's eyes immediately shot open, and quicker than the intruder could see, took her pocket knife out and crouched down into a fighting stance.

"Back off," she warned, slashing her knife in an arc in front of her.

"Whoa! Amy, geez, it's me," the intruder protested, quickly flicking on the light switch that was next to the window. "You sleep with a knife?"

"Sonic, you moron, you scared me," Amy snapped, sheathing her knife. "And yes, of course I sleep with a knife. You don't?"

"We don't exactly have a raging crime ring down here," Sonic commented.

She sighed with annoyance. "What are you doing here? I'm trying to sleep, in case you couldn't tell."

"Since when did you start going to bed early? When you lived here, I remember you used to stay up until three. And I remember, because I would come over and we'd talk around midnight because you couldn't sleep."

"Probably when I realized that not sleeping could get me killed," she retorted. "And that was six years ago, Sonic."

"So?"

"So, just because you want to sit around and act like nothing's changed, doesn't mean it hasn't!" she countered.

"Geez, no need to get testy." He held his hands up in protest. "What did I do?"

"Besides the obvious?" she snorted. "You come in here trying to apologize to me, which was bad enough in itself, because I had almost forgotten all about the shit you did to me. Then you come in here," she realized her voice was getting too loud and lowered it so as not to wake everyone else, "You come in here with all this crap about how you're still in love with me and you're sorry and whatever, so now I have to deal with that in addition to doing what I'm assigned to do. So that's what you did," she finished, shoving him aside and sitting back down in the hammock.

"Don't shove me."

"I'll do whatever the hell I want," Amy snapped, shoving him again.

"You think I'm afraid to push a girl?" Sonic taunted, pushing back. "And you can avoid me all you want, but it's not going to change anything."

He didn't even see her coming. She flew at him, landing a kick to the back of his knees and causing him to fall over before skidding to a stop, in a fighting stance, grinning cockily at him.

"Maybe not, but I can beat the crap out of you until you leave me alone," she sniffed.

Sonic rose slowly. "Not bad, Rose. They've been training you. But," he started, crouching into a fighting stance of his own. "I'm still the fastest thing around here."

With that, an epic fighting match ensued. Sonic launched himself at her, at light speed, something that normally would have knocked her through the wall, but she dodged it easily with a side flip before throwing a spinning roundhouse toward him. He saw it coming, though, and, grabbing her right foot, used her momentum to swing her around and throw her. She hit the wall and didn't get up, wincing and rubbing her head.

"Oh, crap, I'm sorry Amy! I didn't mean to-" Sonic started towards her and bent down next to her only to receive a vicious punch to the stomach that sent him skidding back across the bedroom.

"Oh, but I did," she retorted, grinning. "Sometimes it's good to be underestimated."

"Ugh…" he groaned, rising. "Believe me, Amy, if there's one thing I never did, it was underestimate you.

Punches were exchanged, kicks were thrown, and within minutes, both of them were breathing heavily and bleeding from at least one place on their body. Finally, Amy saw a weak spot in Sonic's fighting pattern, a split second where he wasn't paying attention to his left flank, managed to get behind him, and shoved him up against the wall by his shoulders.

"I don't think you've ever beaten me in a fight before," he conceded, wincing.

"Won't be the last time, pal," Amy smirked. Sonic couldn't help but think about how beautiful she looked right then, hair a mess, a cut on her chin, anger in her eyes. Without even considering the consequences, he broke away from her grip, leaned in, and kissed her fiercely.

She froze, her lips pressed up against his. It was like she was right back in the water with him, that first time, the exact same warm feeling spreading through her body. Her movements betrayed her, jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist as he parted her lips with his tongue. Before, she had been content to let him have the upper hand, but not this time. She broke the kiss, shoved him backwards so that he fell on his butt, and dropped down to her knees, straddling his legs and putting her face as close to his as she could without kissing him.

"You think coming in here and making out with me is going to fix everything?" she murmured, slightly annoyed at the reaction he was getting out of her.

"N-no," he stammered, surprised at her sudden rush of dominance. "But… it's fun."

"You want fun, go to an arcade," she sneered, moving to get up, but he caught her wrist tightly.

"Wrong kind of fun. And you aren't going anywhere," he growled, pulling her back down and capturing her lips again with his own, his hands roaming on her lower back and eventually her butt. She inhaled, surprised, but quickly resumed her attack on him. He eventually moved from her lips, kissing all along her jawline and eventually making his way to the spot where both halves of her collarbone met in the middle, feeling some satisfaction when he heard her sigh with delight.

She suddenly stopped, pushing up off of him and climbing back into her hammock. "Get out of my house. And don't think this changes things between us."

"You shouldn't be so afraid of change, Amy," Sonic grinned, getting up off the floor and dusting his rear end off. Quick as a flash of lightning, he dashed out the window and back into the woods.

Amy could feel her hands trembling from the events that had transpired, and there was no way she was going to be able to sleep now. "Stupid hedgehog," she muttered, getting up and going to the shelf to find a book to read. "Ruins everything for me."