Chapter 27

Sonic raised his head at the sound of a knock on his bedroom door. It was close to midnight now, and he sat cross-legged on his bed with the window open, the ocean breeze fluttering his quills.

"Come in," he called.

Tails opened the door and popped his head in. "Mind a little company? I've got some things to tell you."

"Sure," Sonic shrugged. "I could use someone to talk to right now anyway."

That wasn't very much like him, but Tails shook it off and sat down on the bed next to him. "You want to go first, then?"

"No, you start," he replied.

"Well, the thing is…" Tails trailed off, nervous now, his tails gently tapping the bed behind him.

"You're leaving," Sonic finished for him.

The fox looked over at him, surprised. "What makes you say that?"

"Tails, in your entire life, you've never been nervous to tell me anything. That's the only thing I could think of that would make you act like this," Sonic chuckled, lowering his head. "Mind if I ask where you're going?"

"That's, well…" he hesitated again.

"Oh, something else?" Sonic asked. "It's okay, Tails, you can tell me."

"I sort of fell in love," Tails blurted, his face reddening. "With Sticks."

Sonic looked up at him, incredulous. "You're kidding. You and Sticks?"

The two were quiet for a moment.

"Who would have thought?" Sonic murmured.

"I know," Tails began. "It happened pretty fast. And I want to go with her."

"To GUN?"

"Wherever," he corrected, still blushing. "I just don't want to leave her. And let's face it, I can work from anywhere."

"Wow…" Sonic sighed. "Damn, I just can't believe you're really leaving."

"Thank you," Tails said suddenly.

"What for?"

"For everything," he continued. "You're my brother, you know that, and you've always looked after me and made sure that I was safe. So thank you, Sonic, and I want you to know how much I'm going to miss you."

"Oh, don't get sappy on me now, man," Sonic joked, trying not to let the tears threatening to spill over fall. "Who's going to fix all my stuff now?"

Tails sniffed, unashamedly tearing up. "I'll visit all the time, I swear."

"You'd better, little brother," Sonic grinned, clapping him on the shoulder. That was too much for Tails, who wrapped Sonic up in a bear hug. As he now had about three inches on the hedgehog, he almost suffocated him.

"Wow, Sticks, only a week here and you're already bringing one back with us," Amy joked, carefully placing the rest of her clothes into her duffel bag. "How'd that happen?"

"Well, you know, he just can't live without me," Sticks effused in a southern drawl, dramatically flinging her hand over her forehead before dissolving into a fit of giggles.

"I, for one, am sick of all this lovey shit," Rouge sniffed good-naturedly.

"Mhm, is that why you agreed to go on a date with Knuckles?" Sticks taunted. Rouge responded by pitching a shoe in her direction.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," the bat dodged. "And, if I may be so forward, you and I were the last ones I thought would make connections on this trip." She looked pointedly at Amy, who was wearing her leggings. As her only tank top had gotten torn to shreds, she had repurposed one of the old red dresses (ugh) hanging in her closet, chopping off the bottom to make a quick substitute tank.

"Don't give me that look," Amy retorted, not even having to look up to know what her friend was referring to. "Everything went like it was supposed to. We did our job. Now we can go home."

"I thought for sure blue dumbass would be all over you," Sticks admitted. "Not that I wouldn't have killed him for it."

"Well, now you don't have to kill anybody," Amy smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"I…" Sonic stuttered, unable to find the correct words.

"Spit it out," Amy demanded.

"I want things to be back to normal," he started, knowing that wasn't quite what he was going for. She saw right through it.

"Yeah, well, unless you can turn back time without Silver's help, you're shit outta luck," she snorted. "Seriously, Sonic. You're wasting both of our time."

"This-this isn't easy for me!" he cried in frustration, grabbing a fistful of wet sand and hurling it towards the water. "I can't just do this all at once!"

"Why not? That's how you do everything else," she pointed out. "You are the fastest thing alive, you know. Except when it comes to me, obviously."

"Why can't we just go back to-"

"What, go back to me chasing you around town? Not a chance in hell. I've got other things to do, like my job. And-" she paused to glance down at her phone, "-it's getting late. I need to head back if I'm going to have enough time to pack before we leave tomorrow."

"Leave tomorrow?" he asked blankly.

"Yeah," she shrugged, getting up and dusting sand off the back of her shorts. "We did our job. Time for us to go."

"Oh."

"Anyway. Good luck figuring all this out," she indicated, walking backwards, staring curiously at him. "Maybe I'll see you around someday."

He opened his mouth to stop her, to say something, ANYTHING, but she turned quickly and started on the trail back up to her old house, her windblown hair sticking up in all directions and her bandaged shoulder slowly but surely streaking tiny drips of blood down the small of her back, the first time that she was too quick for him.

"Why did we have to get up so early to leave?" Rouge groaned, flopping back onto Amy's pink bedspread. "Would it have really killed you to stay an extra day?"

"I've got stuff to do back home," Amy shrugged. "You can stay if you want."

"Yeah, Rouge, any particular reason you might want to stay behind?" Sticks grinned, nudging the bat's outer thigh with her elbow.

"If you don't shut up, you're gonna be too dead to come with us," Rouge growled.

"Sorry, I just can't help it," Sticks laughed. "It's too easy."

"If you two are done taking shots at each other, the plane's here," Amy indicated, slightly annoyed. "And it's about a 20 minute walk to the runway." She rolled her injured shoulder. Tails had restitched it for her last night after the disaster that had been her beach talk with Sonic (but only after lecturing her on busting them open in the first place). Still painful, but not her first priority.

"What are you going to do with this place, anyway?" Sticks asked, looking around the cabin. "Not like anyone is planning on using it anytime soon."

"Actually," Amy smiled in spite of herself, "that's not entirely true."

Sticks and Rouge looked at it quizzically.

"It's going to serve as a safe house," she explained. "For any of us to use any time we're down here, especially Blaze and Silver. Something tells me they're going to be hanging around for a while."

"That's a great idea," Rouge grinned. "I wouldn't mind coming back to visit myself."

"I'll bet," Sticks muttered good-naturedly, and the bat bopped her over the head with a closed fist.

Slinging their bags over their shoulders, the three girls proceeded out into the living room and to the front door. Tails was waiting there for them, his duffel sitting next to him.

"Ready, then?" he asked, standing up as they approached.

"Ready," Sticks affirmed, moving to stand next to him, almost unconsciously. "Are you?"

"I think so," Tails pondered. "I can come visit. And I said my goodbyes to Sonic last night."

Sticks grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "You don't have to do this, you know."

He looked at her with enough passion in his eyes to make her blush slightly. "Yeah, I do," he nodded, smiling.

"All right, kiddies, our chariot awaits," Rouge announced, making her way out into the dawn heat already beginning to descend on the beach.

Sticks and Tails made their way down the stairs, and Amy almost followed them, but she stopped in the threshold of the doorway, turning back around.

"Amy?" Sticks questioned.

"You guys go ahead. I'm right behind you," she promised.

Sticks glanced at Tails, who nodded slightly, and the two of them started down the road after Rouge.

Amy glanced around the living space of her old house. Some things were still left where they had been when she had run the first time. Old pictures of her and the team still hung haphazardly on the walls. The pink curtains had long since been taken down, and the furniture was slightly bleached from the unrelenting sun beaming in through the wide windows. She ran her hand over the rough door, imprinting the feeling of it against her finger pads in her mind.

"Bye, house," she whispered, feeling suddenly sad to be leaving. A tear pricked her vision and she quickly blinked it away, backing down the stairs and pulling the door in front of her. She turned to see Tails waiting for her.

Wordlessly, she walked to meet him, and he put an arm around her shoulders, leading her down the dusty path as the sun began to peek from along the water's horizon.