I did originally plan on having this up a lot sooner, but meh, y'know real life and all. Thanks for the amazing reviews.

I own nothing.

Requested by Tan.

Boom: Common Background

Amy gently sighed to herself as she slowly wondered around the village, her hands clasped behind her back. Her eyes remained downcast, an expression of sadness evident on her face, despite how much she tried to hide it. She was an open book and she hated it. As she cursed one of the professor's words to her, she had to keep reminding herself that it wasn't exactly his fault. He wasn't to know.

"Your parents must be so proud of what you've achieved."

Those words echoed around and around in her head as if in a dark, hollow cave. When those words had been spoken to her at her presentation that morning, she had no idea how to react. Amy had stood there with her mouth slightly agape like an idiot, silent as the professors began to stare at her with confusion and slight concern as one of the most prestigious academics and archaeologists was rendered unexplainably speechless.

Amy shuddered with embarrassment at the memory of awkwardly excusing herself in order to calm her racing heart that was fighting the stabbing sensation brought on by grief and sorrow. But, would they have been proud? That was a good question. Amy had no idea what the fate of her parents were; no memory or anything. Not a single hint to their identity or what had happened to them that caused Amy to be alone most of her life until she met her friends. Had they abandoned her? Had they died? She hated not knowing. That was probably what killed her the most. The fact that she didn't know. She could probably live more with the fact that they were dead or that they couldn't cope with bringing her up a lot more than this confusion at the loss of a solid explanation.

The sound of a child's laughter filled her ears and Amy looked up to see two children running around their parents as they began to laugh with them. As immature as it sounded, Amy couldn't help but envy those children. So innocent, so sheltered and so loved. Amy had never really had any of that. What was it liked to be in a mother's embrace? To have her stroke her hair as she cried onto her shoulder, talking about all of her worries, problems and fears? To have a father, strong and protective that she knew she could always run to whenever she was afraid? What was it like to have them guide her through the world that she was so new to? Knowing that she had never experienced any of that, Amy felt empty. Like she had missed a big part of her life. She wasn't sure if she could explain this alien feeling to anyone. How could anyone possibly understand?

Consumed with that overwhelming feeling, Amy pressed on through the streets, trying as hard as she could to fight off the tears that were threatening to fall. The emotions threatened to crush her chest and this feeling only grew even more powerful as she heard the sound of her friends' laughter behind her.

"Hey Amy, how did the presentation go?" Sticks called to her and Amy froze on the spot, refusing to turn around and face them.

"Oh, ummm, it was fine." Amy replied, a slight squeak in her voice as she tried to stop her voice from shaking.

Sonic's ears perked up at her tone, knowing immediately that something wasn't right.

"Is everything ok?" He asked, voicing his thoughts.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Amy still wouldn't face them as she heard their footsteps making their way over to her.

"You do sound kind of off." Tails noted.

Amy bit her lip to stop it from quivering. "It's nothing."

Knuckles snorted. "Yeah, it sounds like nothing. Has someone said something to you? 'Cause if they have, you know Knuckles can give them a good beat down." He cracked his knuckles while smirking in determination.

"I said it's nothing." Amy insisted as her breaking point got closer and closer.

"You're shaking." Sonic pointed out. "You know you can talk to us about anything."

Amy finally turned around to face them, glaring as she threw her arms out to the side in irritation as she spoke. "I'm fine, ok? Quit fussing!"

"I think the toaster overlords have done something to scramble Amy's mind up, because she's definitely not fine." Sticks whispered behind her hand to Tails who rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Someone has said something, haven't they?" Sonic folded his arms stubbornly across his chest.

"Not deliberately." Amy admitted, her vision going blurry as her eyes filled up with tears. "You know, for once, this isn't a problem that friendship can fix. That is unless you have a magic wand that can produce a family." Amy finally broke down and began sobbing before turning to run away, her hands covering her eyes.

The four of them stared after her in shock while a few other villagers stared after her in confusion before going back to their daily business. The gang were silent for a few moments.

"So, Amy's feeling down because she's an orphan?" Tails realised as they all looked down sadly.

Knuckles sighed. "I don't really see what the big deal is about parents anyway, I don't have any parents and I turned out fine; good looking, intelligent –"

"That's debatable." Sonic mumbled.

"We all don't have parents." Tails shrugged. "Why is this suddenly bothering her now? I hope she's ok."

Sonic stared in the direction she ran off in deep in thought before turning back to his friends. "I'll go and check on her." He said before dashing off after her.

It seemed as though she had run off in the direction of her house so Sonic thought he'd try there first. It was where the ice-cream was so with that thought, Sonic was even more sure that he was right. He reached her little purple house in seconds and knocked on the door. He heard movement inside, but no one came to answer. Tapping his foot, he waited a little longer before worriedly pressing his ear against the door. He could hear her sniffling to herself so without hesitation he walked along the wooden platform and easily hopped through her open window much to Amy's shock.

"Sonic!" She yelled in annoyance, quickly wiping her eyes and stabbing her spoon into her ice-cream, placing the bowl down in the table in front of her couch.

"I'm hardly going to leave a friend alone when they're upset." Sonic explained as he sat down next to her, resting his elbows on his knees as he smiled attentively at her. "So you're feeling down about being an orphan, huh?"

Amy sniffed, looking away in shame. "I know, I'm being stupid."

Sonic shook his head. "No, I don't think you are, I'm just curious as to what suddenly brought this on."

"Just something that got said to me today." Amy sighed. "When looking at my work, one of the professors said that my parents must be proud of me and…I don't know…it just got to me. Pathetic, right?"

"Why would that be pathetic?" Sonic demanded.

"I just can't explain it. It just made me long to know what happened. Whether or not they would be proud of me if they were around." She then growled in frustration. "Like I said, it's hard to explain and you wouldn't understand."

"Understand?" Sonic questioned in shock. "Amy, all of us don't have parents around. I know how you feel so don't ever feel like you're alone with what you're feeling no matter how impossible that sounds."

"You never knew your parents?"

"No, I didn't." Sonic awkwardly placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "And if you want to know what happened, I'm sure you'll find out one day. Even if you didn't have any, you've still become a wonderful, amazing, intelligent, beau – errr, well you get the idea."

Amy smiled and blushed slightly.

"And if you're ever feeling down about it again, you know you can always talk to me or the others. We do understand." Sonic smiled at her reassuringly and Amy managed to smile at him in return, feeling slightly better after hearing what Sonic had to say.

"Thanks Sonic." She nudged him slightly with her shoulder. "That means a lot to me."

"Hey, what are friends for?" He beamed down at her.

They both looked down as Sonic's wrist communicator started beeping and Sonic flicked it, allowing Tails' voice to fill the room.

"Sonic, we have a problem. Eggman's attacking the village!"

"Right, we'll be right there." Sonic said, cutting off the communicator and quickly standing up before holding his hand out to Amy.

"Ready to kick some Egghead butt?"

Amy smirked. "Always."

She took his hand and he easily pulled her up before they both ran out of the door together towards the village with Amy now reassured with the fact that she was never truly alone, no matter what.

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