Chapter 12

Dear Shadow,

I apologize for the recent lack of the letters - I was sick as a drunkard for the last few days - though I'm sure you enjoyed the silence for a change. Vanilla says I overworked myself, and I agree, but that doesn't stop me from being frustrated by my body's own limitations.

Just because I had to rest, doesn't mean I had to like it.

I was thinking of your plan recently. My father paid me a visit while I was sick and mentioned that men who enter the Tournament have 'seconds' - advisors of sorts. He mentioned it because he'd like my potential husband to win the Tournament, but he very well knows that no one will be able to win against you. He thought you might instead step back and act as the man's second, and I - of course - know you never would.

Likewise, it dawned on me that I could never win against you, and I thought it best to ask your plan for the Tournament. Perhaps if you could find it in your heart to stand on the sidelines as my potential fiancé's second, we could use your position to embarrass him even further. If not - are we to face each other in the ring? I would not like to imagine the fight, and I am not so dumb to think I could ever beat you.

I am thinking of you fondly and hope all is well in Babylon. You better start preparing yourself to be hugged when you come back, two months is so much longer than I could have ever anticipated.

All my love,

Princess Amelia Rose of the Rose Kingdom

Amy cocked her head at herself in the mirror. She felt infinitely better on the whole, but her body was still somewhat achy. It probably didn't help that she was trying on what she suspected might be the single heaviest dress in the world.

The garment was deep red and covered in rubies - the large skirt practically crusted with them, trailing down her bustle in intricate patterns. The fabric of the dress was thick, too, and the corset was… rather bustier than Amy was used to. The long, billowing sleeves fell off her shoulders delicately, and though the dress was undeniably beautiful, Amy knew easily that it did not suit her in spirit.

"It's…"

"Marvelous!" The bat woman beamed at her.

Rouge was unlike anyone Amy had ever met before. The woman was… worldly. Modern. Full of contradictions that all seemed to coalesce in a shroud of misty haze that surrounded her constantly, thick with lascivious mystery.

Rouge was slender yet busty. Subtle yet garish. At once personable and easy to talk with, but also unknowable and full of endless complexity.

Simply put, Rouge was alluring to no end. A bat with a large personality and even larger lashes.

Rouge stood behind Amy, regarding her in the mirror with eyes that sparkled like gemstones. Despite how uncomfortable Amy was in the dress, she felt at ease with Rouge. Rouge dressed conspicuously in well-tailored dark trousers and a billowing shirt like men wore, with a corset sealed over top of it. A beautiful meddling of traditionally feminine and masculine dress into something new. Something that Amy herself wished she could pull off.

Incredibly promiscuous, Amy thought with respect, and laughed wondering what her father's reaction must have been when Rouge first appeared in court wearing her undergarment as an outer one. Amy was wowed by her confidence, as she suspected most everyone who met the seamstress was, and jealous of how Rouge wore her clothes in a way that was shameless and free.

"I'm serious," Rouge said, pinching the back of the gown so that the front fit Amy a bit better. "You look incredible, darling. Like a Queen," Rouge added with a knowing look, and held an arm out behind her as if expecting something to land in her palm.

When nothing did, Rouge turned and eyed her assistant who stood going over pages of measurements in the corner.

"Pittie," Rouge sighed. "My scissors?"

"Oh!" The young apprentice jumped up and grabbed a set of heavy, silver fabric scissors, pressing them into Rouge's palm nervously. Pittie was a stylish young dog clad in a draping, moody purple gown who never seemed to stop tapping her foot. As she apologized clumsily, she pushed her spectacles back up on her small, pink nose out of nervous habit.

Amy offered the young apprentice an encouraging smile, which Pittie returned with gratitude before making to fade back into the corner.

"You agree?" Amy asked the woman, Pittie, before she could disappear again. "Do I look… marvelous?"

Pittie glanced apprehensively in the mirror at Rouge, who met her eyes and gestured with a hand before turning back to making adjustments to the gown.

"Go on," Rouge said in her loud, brassy croon. "How you gonna learn to be a dressmaker if you don't do any consulting?"

"...I think that," Pittie examined Amy in the mirror, her foot-tapping suddenly stopping as she gathered her thoughts, "you do look like a Queen, but…" Pittie smiled sympathetically at her, "you don't look like you think you look like a Queen." Pittie stumbled over her last mouthful of a sentence with some embarrassment before stepping back quickly and quietly.

Rouge paused her work and looked up at Amy, who blushed. The apprentice had caught her.

"What's wrong? You can tell me what you don't like, honey, I've got thick skin," Rouge assured, stepping back and considering the gown with a frown.

"Is it the boobs?" Rouge asked flatly after a moment of deliberation, and Amy almost laughed at how normal and easy Rouge made the question seem.

"Actually no, if you can believe that. It's just… rather impractical, isn't it?"

Rouge laughed harshly. "It is practical for one thing, and one thing only, sweetheart: displaying what wealth, among other assets, you might have to offer a future fiancé. But no, it's not meant for real practicality, I suppose. Why do you think I'm wearing pants?" she said with a knowing waggle of her brow.

Rouge wasn't unkind, just… blunt. Amy thought she was wildly, refreshingly uninhibited.

"And yet…" Amy sighed, "you manage to make wearing pants look like something a Queen might actually do."

She glanced at Rouge, and couldn't help but smile at the bat's mischievous grin.

"What?" Amy asked, turning her head playfully.

"It's because I am a queen, your majesty - in my own, metaphorical way," Rouge laughed. "No one dares comment on my pants because there is no need to question the choices of such an obviously commanding, vivacious woman as I am. I make it look like the ladies wearing skirts are the odd ones out, like pants are the next big thing!" Rouge's eyes glimmered as she looked Amy up and down, chewing on every word she said like they tasted delicious.

"You know…" Rouge said with a wink, "fashion is one of the most powerful weapons a person can wield - don't you agree, Pittie?"

Pittie nodded dutifully from the corner.

"And you're gonna be Queen at some point right, doll?" Rouge pressed.

"A figurehead, more like," Amy scoffed.

"But is that the kind of Queen you want to be?" Rouge stepped up behind Amy and put a hand out grandiosely, painting a picture for Amy. "When they put your face in the history books - what do you want them to write underneath it? What do you want to be immortalized wearing?"

Amy looked down with a smile. No one had ever really asked her that before. She thought about what she had asked Sonic the night before, about what he wanted.

She couldn't know what he was thinking, but she knew what she wanted, and she refused to be like him and hold herself back from speaking it proudly and earnestly.

"I want them to write that I was fearless. And kind," Amy said resolutely, then looked up at Rouge to see how she might take it. "I want them to write epics about my deeds - about how I took the whole world into my palm and shaped it lovingly, like a piece of clay, by hand."

Unsurprisingly, Rouge's eyes went wide, but her smile was hungry and she wet her lips in anticipation. Like Amy had just sat her down to a feast.

"...Just how brave are you then, Princess?" Rouge asked after a moment, her hand flying to her chin in thought.

Amy puffed up, looking back at herself in the mirror.

"Very," she said with gusto.

"So why not show them all -" Rouge rushed to rummage in her travel trunk, and pulled out a pair of long ruby trousers. She grinned as she returned and held them in front of Amy's waist over the skirt, "- who wears the pants?"

Amy broke into a full grin. "You can really make it happen in a month?"

"Honey, I am a super woman," Rouge assured, pulling the pants away and draping them over her arm. "I could make it happen in two days if I had to. On one condition, though. I want to style you - so Pittie and I are gonna need invites to the ball." Rouge winked and handed her scissors and other sewing tools off to Pittie, then walked around to begin unlacing Amy.

"And when this outfit goes down in history, you better make sure my name is right next to yours," Rouge added with a nod that told Amy she had just found another powerful ally.

"Consider it done," Amy agreed, feeling rather excited for her ball for the first time ever. If she was lucky, every eligible man in the room would keel over and die in shock at the very sight of her, leaving her oh-so-sadly without a single dancing partner. And if not every man… Well, even just the 80-year-old Duke of Yokely would be more than enough.

"You are the most interesting royal I've met in some time, your majesty," Rouge murmured happily, smiling roguishly. "It's… refreshing."

The two women took their new measurements and excused themselves to town for fabric shopping.

After they left, Amy sent her letter for Shadow off and returned to her bed for a nap, hoping she would fall asleep fast and only wake when the evening, and Sonic, came.

"Pants?" Sonic laughed hard. The notion delighted him - something so small and yet so sure to wreak havoc amongst the nobility at the party. Just like Amy to agree to something so deliciously ludicrous, he thought.

"I told Rouge we didn't have to do it if she feared retribution - she could be the one punished after all," Amy said diplomatically, and Sonic leaned in with interest from where he sat in one of her armchairs.

"The world of the monarchy is cruel," she lectured. "Everyone's looking for someone else to blame, to pretend like they've found the root of the issue, when really they've just killed another pawn in a broken system. But Rouge said she'd make sure I look so good that people won't even notice that I'm wearing pants. She said she'd make sure they'd be too busy…" Amy trailed off and bit her lip.

"What?" Sonic asked, intrigued by her reaction.

Amy hesitated. She wasn't really bothered by lewdness, and she hadn't been bothered by it with Sonic before either, but for some reason a blush began creeping up her neck as she admitted, "Rouge said - and this is a quote - 'everyone would be too distracted trying to get in my pants to be distracted by my pants'."

Sonic's eyes widened, and then he barked with laughter again.

"This woman sounds fun," Sonic said as he wiped an eye.

"Oh she is, I'm glad to have her on my team," Amy said with a happy nod. It was true. Every new person she met seemed to bolster her weaknesses and provide new wind for her sails, which she was unfathomably grateful for.

The two of them were comfortably settled in her armchairs and had been for some time. Since she knew Sonic was coming, Amy kept the fire stoked as she waited for him, and snuck some food and drink up from the kitchen to turn their gathering into something more special.

She didn't want him to think she had worked too hard, but the truth was that Amy set up the little picnic of things for them with great care, pulling a small table between the chairs and arranging pastries and a teapot with artful purpose.

Amy could see when he arrived that the little set-up had touched Sonic - he clearly wasn't used to people going out of their way to do things for him.

"You took a quilt last night, I saw?" Amy asked timidly, sipping on some more of Vanilla's miracle beverage in a porcelain teacup.

"For Tails…" Sonic began to explain but immediately trailed off. As soon as he said the boy's name he realized that Amy had never heard it until this very moment.

"Tails?" she repeated with a soft question mark, prompting him.

"A, uh, kid on my… team," he tried to explain, not sure where to begin. The world of thieves was an odd one, at once lawless and filled with rules. Rules no one could really define, but rules no one would ever dare to break, either. The systems of thieves were hard to describe in precise words to anyone who didn't live under them for most of their lives.

"He's a good kid I rescued a couple years back," Sonic started again, opting to just skip on the camp talk. "We just seem to… work together. He's really bright, too… I didn't want to see him chewed up and spit out by the camp like Knuckles and… I…"

Again, Sonic realized he had hit on another new something.

Amy quirked her head at him with a bemused smile.

"Knuckles?"

"What've you done to me?" Sonic muttered on a sigh, trying not to grin at her poor attempt to hide her gloating.

"It's called having a conversation, Sonic," Amy laughed.

"Sure, but why is it suddenly happening so… easily," he said, drinking his tea grumpily.

"Weird, it's almost as if when you commit to being there for someone, you have to… actually be there for them. All of you," Amy teased, delighted at how easy it was to find new threads of Sonic's life to pick up and follow now that they were closer. She hadn't even brought up the ring yet, and at this rate she thought she might not have to.

"You're very clever, aren't you?" he grumbled, her own voice echoing in his mind from when she had asked him the very same thing when they had first met.

"I like to think so," she said with a wink.

"This was a bad idea, I'm rubbing off on you," Sonic said with a shake of his head and a groan as he set his teacup down and fell back into the armchair dramatically.

"You're just mad because I'm forcing you to realize just how insufferable you are," Amy said, watching his lips twitch with amusement.

"Knuckles is an old, stubborn ass," Sonic said, bluntly changing the subject.

"And…?" Amy prompted.

"What do you mean 'and'? That's it."

Amy waggled a finger at him. "Why is he a stubborn ass? Why are you being such a stubborn ass about him? There's always more, and what's underneath is almost always the more interesting part."

Sonic considered for a moment, still sunken into the armchair as he sucked on his teeth.

"Knuckles and I arrived at camp one after the other and we were… Well, we're the opposite of whatever Tails and I are. Drawn together by something just as powerful, but totally different. I don't know the extent of his story - there's a lot of rumors around the camp about why he joined up, but Knuckles never confirms or denies any of them. I do know that he's always wanted to compete in the Tournament of Champions though - the guy never shuts up about it during Tournament season. Too bad he'd be arrested on sight if he ever tried," Sonic added. "But… he'd be good at it, I'll admit. He's a lot like you, skillswise."

Amy nodded wisely, wondering about the two men on Sonic's team - what kind of people they were, what they might want or need once she was Queen.

"Your team sounds very… balanced," she said finally.

"It is," Sonic said with a slight hesitation. He clicked his tongue and took the plunge. "I was thinking that… it's time we got serious about your training - no punches pulled - and Knuckles and Tails would be good additions to your routine."

Amy turned her head from Sonic to conceal her sharp inhale, and tried not to think about all that could go wrong if word about her were to spread too far around the camp. If a small camp of thieves was anything like a small group of castle workers, Amy knew very well that information and scandal was almost as precious to them as real coin currency.

"When we first met, you told me you might be the only trustworthy thief out there," Amy pointed out.

"Well, ok - maybe I was just saying that for dramatic effect. There are definitely at least three," Sonic amended with a shrug. "Three trustworthy thieves, and one good noble."

Amy peered at him. "You really think they could help me? And you really, really think they can be trusted?"

Sonic looked her in the eye and said, "I do. Honest." He placed his hand over his heart and offered her a smile that reassured her greatly.

And made that fluttering feeling from her dream stir in her diaphragm.

"Very well then, I will accept their help," Amy said, smiling when Sonic grinned happily.

"Great!" he snapped, sitting up. "We'll start with them at the end of the week, we'll need the rest of this one just to get you back up and running. I'll talk to them sometime this week, which will be…"

"Interesting?" Amy suggested.

"To say the least," Sonic agreed.

A sense of purpose blossomed in Sonic. With her blessing, there would be no more secrets between him and his friends. The thought of Knuckles' and Tails' reaction to the news made him grimace, but if he could just get through to them - Knuckles in particular - he knew that Amy would benefit greatly. He mused for a bit on what the best tactic for goading Knuckles into helping might be, and smiled thinking about how Tails would love Amy wholeheartedly.

It would be good for them, Sonic realized. Amy had asked what he wanted last night, and one of the things he wanted was for his friends to have stable futures that they could each thrive in. For Tails in particular, Sonic thought, Amy would be invaluable. Hadn't she already mentioned a university to him once?

"What're you smiling about?" Amy asked, and Sonic realized that she had been watching him softly, but with unwavering intent. She was so good at that - cushioning the weight of her nearly unbearable intensity in tender and genuine care. It warmed Sonic to his very core, and he was becoming less and less afraid of bearing the weight of it, too.

"I was just thinking of my friend, Tails, in your university you talked about yesterday. The kid's a real genius. You'll see when you meet him," Sonic said with a happy nod.

"I'm sure there's a place for him here," Amy nodded, warmed from watching Sonic dream on behalf of his friends. "There's a place for… all of you here," she said tentatively.

A place for you, she really meant, but couldn't bring herself to potentially scare him by saying it.

Sonic had never pictured his future much before, but suddenly, as Amy spoke he could see one flickering like the flames in the hearth that did not repulse or depress him, as visions of his future before meeting her often did. He luxuriated in the vision…

Knuckles, a knight. Tails, a scholar. Amy, a queen. And he…

Damn… he thought. He anticipated that he would be gone in this future, that he wouldn't see himself standing among them. That he'd have moved on to let them live out their dreams.

But Sonic was shocked to realize, in his mind, that he was still with them. In this beautiful, aspirational future - in the future where he was anywhere and everywhere, where he was anything he wanted to be - he was with them.

With Amy.

"That ring brings you a lot of comfort, huh?" Amy asked, pointing. Sonic looked down and realized he had grabbed onto it.

"'An eternal love'," Amy quoted at him hesitantly, "that's… what it says, right?"

Sonic took a deep breath and willed this part of their conversation to come as easily as everything else, though he knew it would not.

"Y-yeah," he said, not offering up anything else.

Amy sat back into her chair and sipped her beverage. She turned to the fire and cast glances at him as she waited for him to find his footing in his own mind, sure that if she watched him outright he would never be able to get the words out.

"...Were you betrothed?" Amy asked, when finally she could take it no longer. The truth was that for the past week and a half, this was what she most suspected and feared. It wasn't uncommon to be betrothed from a young age to another, and what else was a ring for if not binding two lives together in gold?

To her surprise - and relief - Sonic chuckled softly.

"No," he said. He opened his mouth to continue, but paused and turned to her as if a thought had suddenly struck him.

"Were you?" he asked, his brow furrowed in curious concern.

Amy set her cup down and looked at him sadly.

"Yes," she admitted, without a hint of emotion in her voice.

"...Oh," Sonic said, his mouth open slightly. His heart began to beat harder, and his chest ached as it railed against his body like the heavy, incessant pounding of a hammer.

"But," Amy said, and Sonic felt his breath hitch at the word, "I have not been for quite some time. Obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be fiancé hunting at the ball in a month."

"Oh, right," Sonic said, leaning onto his elbows, his head in his hand. He had forgotten that. He felt foolish for the brief panic that had gripped him over it, but still his heart pounded.

"When I was first born, my family assumed that… more children would follow," Amy said, turning her gaze to the portrait of her mother hanging over the mantle. "So I was betrothed to the first son of a Lord who would eventually take over for his father. At the time, who I married wasn't something of much consequence to the kingdom at large."

"Did you ever… meet him?" Sonic asked, questions sprouting in his mind like weeds.

"No," Amy said, and thought she heard Sonic let out a breath next to her, but her eyes stayed fixed on her mother's. "I never met him. And when no more children came, let alone a son, and it became clear that for the kingdom it was me or nothing, my father broke off the engagement claiming that circumstances had changed now that whoever I was to marry would become King."

"And… your mom?" Sonic asked. He was afraid to make her sad, to bring the mood down, but he pushed aside the fear and did his best to wade into the dark depths of their histories beside her.

"She died giving birth to another baby when I was 10," Amy said, her eyes shining. Sonic was astounded to see that despite her welling eyes, she smiled softly at the woman in the painting. Sonic was afraid of negative, painful feelings - he hated the way they made him behave. But Amy bore them with a smile, mixing her sadness with other, more nuanced things like happiness, nostalgia, tenderness, and gratitude.

She contained so many multitudes, and it comforted Sonic watching her linger in them, bearing them without shame for him to see. He felt honored to bear witness to her - her emotions, her journey.

"After that… my dad was stuck with me," Amy said solemnly.

She closed her eyes briefly, honoring the moment of silence it took to gather herself, then turned back to Sonic and shrugged.

"It turned out for the best - I heard the Lord I was engaged to was bad news. At least now I get to choose - to a degree," she qualified, then sighed loudly. "So, you're not betrothed - that's good. Whose ring is that, then?"

Sonic quirked an eyebrow at her but chose not to question her further on why it was 'good' he wasn't engaged. Amy seemed not to even notice she had said it.

"My dad's," Sonic said, finally letting the words out. It hurt - just speaking about the man conjured up so many images of what Sonic once had. And once had to lose.

"And his 'eternal love' was with…"

"My mom," Sonic said, swallowing down the ache in his throat. "They're both dead," he said with cold finality. "Have been since I was 13."

Amy's mouth fell open in heartbroken shock. "At 13? You lost them both at once?"

Sonic nodded, studying the tips of his dirty boots.

"My hometown was raided by a greedy neighboring Lord sometime in the summer of my 13th year. Word is he was trying to acquire more land," Sonic spat out with disgust. "Everything of my family's was burnt to the ground or claimed in the name of the Lord - our house, the valuables, paintings, notes, journals… Everything but this," Sonic pulled the ring away from his chest, causing the chain around his neck to go taught as he held the precious object between his fingers.

"I'm -"

"Don't," Sonic warned with a growl. "Nothing to be sorry about anymore."

But Amy was sorry. Never had she hated her status, her father, or the people who she knew more. Her father had most definitely been King at the time, of that there could be no doubt.

He should've done something, Amy glowered, her eyes growing dark and vengeful.

"What was your village called?" Amy asked, vowing to find out more about it, though she wouldn't tell Sonic that.

"Greenhill," he said, casting his mind back to the only time he visited his homeland as an adult. He had left immediately when he lost everything at 13, and only went back nearly 10 years later. He could only withstand it for a night. Looking out on the dead patch of land where his and so many of his neighbor's houses had once been had not given him the sort of epiphany or comfort he thought he had been searching for. After one drunken night, Sonic left without shedding a single tear and never even considered going again.

"So you went to the thieves…"

"Straight after," Sonic said. "I ran through the forest for days - weeks maybe. I didn't speak a single word for the entire time, and even when the thieves took me in, I still didn't talk. Only when Knuckles arrived did I finally… wake up."

Amy turned back to him, satisfied that he could handle her eye contact now that his story was spread out before them to look at together.

"Thank you for telling me," she said.

"Sorry if it disappoints as far as sob stories go," Sonic said with a big, heaving sigh. He shifted uncomfortably, trying to make the statement sound like a joke, or at least like he didn't really care about what had happened in his past.

"Too bad I'm not a disgraced Prince, or my parents weren't secretly in charge of a dukedom," Sonic pointed out. "Then your engagement problem could've been solved. Instead I'm just another kid in a sea of millions who was born a nobody, made into an orphan, and turned into a thief."

Amy's eyebrows rose briefly when Sonic mentioned being unable to solve her engagement problem. Had he actually… wanted to?

"You are not a nobody," she said firmly, and reached across the expanse between chairs to grasp his hand.

"You are yourself, Sonic. There is no one like you," Amy said. She was never so certain of something as she was of that truth. He was one of a kind.

Sonic blinked hard, fighting the smile and the warmth that she ignited in him. He had never really been comforted before, not since striking out on his own all those years ago. It was hard for him to just let it happen.

"Never gonna let you live that one down," he murmured.

Amy shrugged. "If I must suffer through a lifetime of teasing to remind you of who you are in this moment, then I will do so happily."

A lifetime, Sonic thought. A lifetime teasing Amy…

He let the smile claim his lips. And when he did, Amy squeezed his hand gently.

"You're lucky," Amy said after a moment. Sonic finally turned to look at her, the weight slipping slowly from his body.

"You know your parents loved each other, and loved you," she said with a shrug. "Even though you went without it for a while, you were born into a life full of love."

"And you don't think you were?" Sonic asked.

"I know I was not," Amy said matter-of-factly. "My parents' marriage was political - obviously. And though my mother cared for me, she was also a deeply sad woman," Amy sighed. "I have witnessed firsthand what marriages like the one I am destined for do to a woman. I… don't want to lose myself to that like she did. I don't want to fade away…"

Amy's words broke Sonic's heart. It was something he could see so clearly. Amy was as vibrant as a run through the woods. He hoped he wouldn't live to see a day that the spark of her spirit was extinguished for good.

Sonic looked at the portrait of her mother for the first time and saw what Amy was talking about. Amy's green eyes were the same color as her mom's, but the artist of the portrait had been too good at their job. There was nothing shining in them, no lines at the corners of her eyes, and her smile was dull and repressed.

"You won't have to get married, Ames. You'll win the Tournament, and afterwards, I hope you'll never know another day of sadness," Sonic said solemnly, and he heard Amy let out a huff in amusement.

Amy shook her head and looked at him. His answer revealed so much about him, though Amy knew Sonic would not recognize how much he had just shown her.

"You misunderstand me, Sonic. You're thinking like yourself again, silly," she said tenderly. "Sadness cannot be avoided. It's just as natural a part of you and I as breathing is, and you are a fool if you think it isn't. No, I'm not afraid to know sadness - that I can handle. But I am afraid…"

Amy's head dipped down as she took a deep breath, pulled her heart out, and offered it up to him unflinchingly. "I'm afraid of never being the object of someone's real, honest love. If I were to live a life never knowing how it feels to be loved… that, I could not bear..."

It was then Sonic and Amy realized that they were still holding hands in the space between their chairs, and both quickly let the other go.

"I should be off…" Sonic said sullenly after a moment. The hearth had gone from a soft blaze at the beginning of their time together to nothing but embers.

Amy could hear in his voice that he wasn't quite ready to go. That made her smile, and though she wished he would say it, she knew that he wouldn't be able to and instead, offered him comfort in the way she knew she could.

"You don't have to be, though," Amy assured quietly, and Sonic relaxed. "Why don't you tell me a story, instead? So I can fall asleep."

Sonic perked up, thankful for an excuse to stay and talk off his mood of sullen introspection. He cast her a grateful look and poured them both more tea.

"What kind of story would you like?" he asked.

"A story about a knight who could harness the wind," she said after a moment. "And how he found an eternal love."

Sonic looked down again for a moment, thinking. When finally he could look back up, he did so with a smile just for her. It was unlike any smile Amy had seen on him before; confident, private, charming, and sincere. She almost put her hand to her heart, it was so stunning to her, and instead curled into her quilt and settled back in her chair.

"So it shall be," Sonic began gallantly, and set to work weaving a tale of desire, cunning, danger, humor, and bravery. His story lasted for hours because Amy refused to stop interrupting him to poke holes in his logic or request revisions to the plot ("The princess should know how to fight!" She complained. "She should be good with weapons - perhaps a hammer?").

Even after the story was over and the embers had long turned to ash, still they talked on and on. Amy had been too happy to let herself fall asleep until she physically could not keep her eyes open anymore.

Only after she began to snore quietly did Sonic leave, and even then, as he tucked her into bed for the second night in a row, he was tempted so very badly to settle himself back into his chair and fall asleep, for he felt that surely he would get none without her comforting presence nearby.

In the end, he knew that it would be far too dangerous for him to stay, and pulled himself together for the trek back to camp.

In his tent, Sonic stared up at the stars until the morning, when they all faded one by one.

Occasionally, a lone tear slipped from the outer corner of his eye and down the side of his cheek as he went over everything he had spoken about from his life on loop. The tears came sparsely and without any pretense, the only sound in the tent Sonic's labored breathing as he tried to hold onto the memories of his mother and father in their home, of running freely around the village stirring up trouble, of his nights spent in a bed that belonged to him being read stories by parents who loved him and told him so often.

Sonic couldn't remember the last time he had felt a wet tear of his own in his fur, but surprisingly he did not hate himself when they came, and neither did he judge them. When he felt one bubble up in him, he would just think of Amy for comfort.

She stood bright in his mind, and when a tear came he clutched his hand to his chest, gripping at his shirt like it was Amy's hand and he was back in her armchair. He let himself go, and she took him by the hand and guided him tenderly, slowly through the rose-colored haze of his memories.

Then, the tears would pass and so would the ache in his heart, and he would go back to contemplating the unreachable, ungovernable, indefinable beauty of the stars until finally, he fell asleep as the sun rose.

A/N: Wow... I'm crying WITH Sonic, for real. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this sweet little chapter - back to our regularly scheduled programming of fighting and flirting soon, I promise! Hope you all had fantastic weekends - see you back here for Chap 13 soon!