Chapter 24

"So does it always feel like this?" Amy asked, clasping her hands around her stomach. "Just… unsettling?"

"Pretty much," Blaze sympathized. "I always sort of felt like I was going to throw up at any given time. Which is not exactly the sort of image I wanted to project."

"Ugh," Amy muttered. "I mean, I'll get used to it. It's just…"

"Yeah," Blaze finished, giving her a kind smile. "I know."

"Thanks for telling me all this stuff, Blaze," Amy replied. The two girls had spent the past fifteen minutes discussing different ways for Amy to get along with her life as normally as possible. Blaze had several pieces of advice for her, little ways to make her feel closer to the way she had before. "I'm really grateful."

"If anyone's grateful, it should be me, Amy." Blaze's eyes were serious. "I can't even begin to tell you what a heroic thing it was you did."

"I don't know about that," Amy murmured, slightly embarrassed. She quickly changed the subject, desperate for the focus in the room to be anywhere but on her. "How are you and Silver doing?"

Now it was Blaze's turn to look embarrassed. "Good, I suppose. He seems quite happy."

"How'd you know?"

"How did I know what?" Blaze asked, leaning back against the couch.

"You know… how did you know that you were in love with Silver?" Amy asked, some confusion in her eyes.

Blaze, who was not entirely prepared for her question, looked startled and blushed furiously. "Oh… oh, Amy, it was so long ago. I don't even remember now."

Amy looked unsatisfied, but nodded before rising unsteadily as Blaze offered her a hand. She politely refused it. "I'm going to go walk down to the beach, I think. I'll be back in a little while."

"Okay," Blaze agreed, watching the girl as she walked out of the hut. She looked… different, somehow, to Blaze.

The cat glanced back toward the kitchen, where Silver and Sonic were having a conversation, and smiled slightly at how he used his hands for every little expression when he spoke.

"Two years," Blaze murmured, flinching slightly as she felt sharp pieces of metal biting at her ankles. She and Silver were making their way back through the remains of his old home planet, followed closely behind by a small, pale blue bunny and a group of about five other rescuers. Silver also carried a small badger, maybe four years old, who had fallen asleep in the midst of all the action. She noticed that Silver's ankles were so cut up, they looked like they had been run through a paper shredder, but he didn't really seem to notice. "If only I'd come back sooner."

"You said it yourself," Silver shrugged, shifting the sleeping badger from one hip to the other. The child sniffed in his sleep but didn't wake up. "Jumping dimensions takes time."

They finally arrived at what looked like an old, burnt-out apartment building. The group following them quickly scattered to their respective rooms. One of them, a dark red vixen, took the badger from Silver with a kind smile. He nodded gratefully at her.

"My room's up here past that hole," he offered, pointing out a spot in the floor where something huge and heavy had clearly torn through the wooden floorboards. He started forward, stopping when he realized that Blaze had gone quite still. "Everything okay?"

She glanced up, and he was shocked to see tears in her eyes. If there was one thing Blaze never did, it was cry. But yet, here she was, her golden-hued eyes glinting with tears in the evening sun beating down.

"Blaze?" he asked, walking back towards her.

"Sorry," she exhaled, her voice shaky. "I just… I wish I had gotten here sooner, Silver. You had to grow up so quickly."

"Blaze," he sighed, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's not just me. Everyone who survived had to take up some slack. And it's good for me. Welcome to the real world, right?"

Blaze looked up at him, her eyes wide. "Silver, this is not the real world. Not what it's supposed to be, anyway."

"I know," he smiled crookedly. "But it is, at least for us. Look, late or not, I couldn't be happier you're here, Blaze. I missed you more than you'll ever know."

She gave him a small smile, wiping the tears away from her flushed cheeks.

"Come here," Silver offered, pulling her in for a hug. He could feel the afternoon heat radiating off of her body, and he realized that she still had her cloak on. "Geez, you're burning up. Here."

He popped the clasp that held the cloak around her shoulders, but she grabbed it before it could fall and clutched it tightly to herself. "I'm okay," she murmured.

"Blaze, you feel like an oven."

"I don't want to take it off," she admitted to him.

"Why not?"

"Because…" she trailed off, not wanting to tell him the real reason. Her tail, betraying her, twitched underneath her cloak, as if asking her to let it out so it could breathe.

"Blaze," he said seriously, prompting her to look at him. "Nobody here would ever make fun of you. Especially not for something as beautiful as your flames."

"They aren't beautiful," she whispered, another tear tracking its way down her cheek. So many years of never showing any emotion was finally taking its toll. "They're humiliating."

"Why?" he asked simply, taking her hand. "How many times have those same flames saved everyone?"

She ducked her head, embarrassed, but he put a finger under her chin and pushed it back up.

"They're part of you, Blaze. Of course they're beautiful," he said kindly, brushing a tear away with his thumb. Blaze felt her stomach jump at the intensity of his gaze, but in a good way.

Carefully, she unwrapped the cloak from her shoulders, folding it in front of her and looking down at the floor. She was terrified that, when she looked up, Silver would look nervous or scared of her. But when she finally brought her gaze up, he was grinning at her.

"See? It's not so bad," he teased, making her laugh.

Blaze would never tell anyone, not even Silver, but that was it. That was the moment she had fallen in love with him, because nobody else had ever made her feel beautiful for being different.

Sonic put his head in his hands. "Silver, what the hell am I supposed to do now?"

"What do you mean?" Silver asked, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed.

The blue hedgehog glared at him, his green eyes flashing. "We both know you didn't tell me that story for no reason."

"That's true," Silver shrugged. "Why'd I tell it to you?"

"Cut the cryptic shit, Silver," Sonic snapped. "I told her I loved her. I think she got over me a long time ago."

"You completely missed the point of my story," Silver shook his head. "I thought I'd moved on from Blaze, too. But seeing her again brought it all back for me. I don't think Amy's as far gone as you think she is."

Sonic looked out into the living room, where Blaze was sitting on the couch, facing the two of them, presumably having heard every word. "Where'd Amy go?"

"Out for a walk," Blaze offered, coming into the kitchen and sitting in the chair next to Silver. "She'll be back in a little while."

"Right," Sonic exhaled.

"You know," Blaze continued. "I think Silver's right. I don't think you should give up on Amy quite yet."

"How do you know?" Sonic replied, looking frustrated.

"I consider myself to be a smart person," Blaze winked at him. "You're just going to have to trust me on this one."

Sonic gazed at the two of them. Silver had taken her hand and watched her as she spoke like she was the most interesting thing in the universe to him.

"Sonic, when you fall in love with someone, you stop just living for yourself. Instead, now, you're living for both of you," Silver explained, and Blaze blushed as she smiled at him. "So you can't always do what your heart is telling you. You have to do what's best for both of you."