Sonic was gently nudging her aside, eyes set on her empty, stuff-less house. Well, so much for the brakes, she was about to hit the gas. He whistled, low, "You moving soon?"

Gas. Gas. Her hand clenched around the doorknob, and she pressed the ball of her foot into the carpet; she'd leave a dent: "Yes, yes I am!" No use lying. There was no good explanation short of Eggman did it! And even then, stealing furniture had never been his forte. Rogue? Please. She wasn't the brilliant strategist Sally was. Maybe if she was, she wouldn't have been standing there at all. She couldn't lie, but she could reframe the truth with a smile. "That's why I haven't been showing up lately. Sorry about that!"

Bored with the bareness of her home- house, residency, anything but home- Sonic turned back to her, just as unbothered by it as she'd anticipated, "Way past, Ames! Where you moving to?"

Misguide, distract, forge the right words with the wrong suggestion: "Close!" Not a lie, not to Sonic, who could be on the other side of the world in three minutes, tops. To Sally, to Cream, to everyone else, she'd be oceans away. But Sonic didn't care that much, not enough to ask her where, exactly, the way Tails might do. He'd be satisfied with that answer, knowing she wouldn't be out of his reach if there were trouble.

Sonic raised an eyebrow, but that smile on his face didn't falter, and he said nothing else of it. It almost killed her, the part of her that wasn't ready to let go yet- look how well you know him. Look how you can read him with ease. You're meant to be. But her heart clenched, and for a second her smile faltered; had Sonic seen that? She thought of butterflies, chao, good tarot readings, and forced herself to smile, again. "I'm almost done here! Moving truck is coming tomorrow morning."

"All right!" And he sounded so enthused for her, excited when she wanted him to be sad. No, that was okay. If he'd been sad, she would have faltered. He could just ask her to stay, and she would. Without a second thought, she'd have stayed, just for him. Just for the chance for him to look her way, just for what it might mean to have him want her there, she'd have found a way to backtrack on the lease of her apartment hundreds of miles away. But he wasn't sad, and she was still leaving. After all, if she wanted to be an adult, she had to get rid of stupid, childish fantasies, right…? "You need any help?"

"Nah, don't worry about it!" She winced at the pitch of her voice. Was she always that loud when she was happy, that nails-on-a-board-sounding? Or was that just her desperation to sell her act? A little girl playing actress when she hadn't developed that skill. "I've got it covered, Sonikku!" She could see the exasperated twitch in his smile. Right. Because that was how he always looked at her. The man with the world at his fingertips dealing with his neighbor's kid's crush on him. And he could play in the sandbox with her, and let her do his nails, and he'd drink fake tea out of small plastic china cups with handles too small for his fingers, but he'd be spending that time with her because he didn't wanna hurt her. It was cruel, wasn't it, to deny a child time with somebody who enamored them?

And when she got older, that crush was supposed to go up in smoke and stay fleeting in memories, right? She was supposed to do midterm exams and go to karaoke with her other little, misguided friends, because all children are, and when her parents reminded her of that small period of time where she longed for his company, where she could think of nothing more than marrying him and welcoming him home at the end of every day, she'd laugh. She'd laugh and say it was embarrassing, beg her parents not to bring it up, because she was just some bright-eyed kid and she'd outgrown that airy heart phase a long time ago, outgrew him.

And sometimes, Amy wished that was all this was. Because then it would all be so easy. She could look back on it and realize she had some bigger dreams, brighter stars ahead of her in the sky that she wanted to try and chase, and she'd see that the guy she knew was just some guy, and her interest in him had been fickle; there was somebody really special waiting to meet her someday, and she couldn't walk towards him if she was too busy looking back.

But that wasn't what this was.

Because Sonic was everything to her. He was a hero, a clown, a narcissist, a friend, a raw, ever-growing talent that blinded the world with his big, flashy smiles and his pursuit of freedom. She wished she could say her love for him was just some passing fancy she hadn't let die, like everybody, even Aly, always told her, because then it would be so much easier to let go of him. "But um," She scratched at her cheek, tried to veil her trembling as time-crunched anxiety, "I have a lot to do, still, so…" She bit down on her tongue hard enough to feel the thin layer atop split, feel the muscle flinch. She turned her back to her, headed towards the stairs as she grabbed one of the closed, taped boxes. Why was she doing that? To move it somewhere else? What was the point? She should be headed back upstairs to tape those boxes she couldn't stand to look at closed. She should have been headed for the kitchen, where her scissors and duct tape were. She was just trying to hide, she guessed, look like she was doing something so Sonic would take her fib and go drop in unexpectedly to say hi to somebody else, somebody he wasn't killing slowly, or hurting them by saying nice things in a way they'd never want him to mean them.

"Ames," and she realized her whole body was trembling, and Sonic could feel that because his hand was at her shoulder, and it only made him squeeze harder. "Hey, what's wrong?" She shook her head, refused to look at him and see the pity in his eyes she'd been avoiding religiously, the way he used to avoid her. She didn't want his pity. She didn't want him to care at all if he couldn't care in the way she wanted him to. Maybe that was childish, maybe that was the exact sort of thing a kid spoiled with candy would stomp their feet about- but that was how she felt; she was actively working toward not feeling that way. One last time, if she could act like a child and throw a tantrum, she wanted to take advantage of it. She turned her head further away from him, but he got closer, bending down to be on her crouched level. "Amy, c'mon, what are the tears for, huh?"

Her eyes widened. Slowly, she raised a shuddering hand to her face, halting every few moments until her fingers brushed the wet fur of her cheeks.

Ah, she was crying.

She wiped at them gently with her forearm, "N-Nothing!" Again, just once more. One more time and he might leave her alone. In, she breathed, out. Fruit tarts. Champagne. Pretty clothes. She looked at him, finally, and he pulled back, "I'm okay! I promise! I'll still make you chili dogs sometimes, all right? So don't worry about me!" She was smiling at him, and the tears were falling so hard that she couldn't see his face despite looking right at it, and her chest was killing her, squeezing, so wound on itself that it hurt to breathe. "I'm okay. You know me! I'm always tough, right? The most resilient girl you know!" She swallowed, and she could feel the ball of air squelch its way through her lungs, dull pain lingering after it was gone. She turned her head away, back down to the box, and her words escaped her in such soft waves past her lips that she hadn't even processed the words before they were gone, "... so just leave it to me. I'll bounce right back."

"Amy…" He was… scolding her? "You know I can't just leave a friend in need like that."

"Well I'm not in need!" He yelped as she bolted upright, fists clenching and unclenching at her sides, and this wasn't going as she'd planned, not at all. Her teeth were bared at him, grinding, bracing her? Bracing him? "The time for that is way past gone, Sonic!" And she wasn't meaning to say that, could see the way it registered as an insult to him by the way he flinched. Oh, she shouldn't have said that. The familiar, green-grey moldy feeling of guilt slapped against her ribs, quelching up the ladder until it stuck two slimy lines of musk to her heart. Her lips twinged, and she wiped away at her eyes, again. "Sorry. I didn't mean to say that. I just… stop treating me like a kid, all right? I get it, I am a kid to you. I need to not rush it, after all…" It's just a silly crush, right? The words came out a tad more bitter than intended, coated with the lingering distaste of Aly's letter. "If that's the case, then let me be a kid somewhere else." Somewhere other people wouldn't see a kid trying to be an adult, just another girl trying to grow into a woman. Somewhere the very concept of her being an adult isn't laughable, and her feelings wouldn't be disregarded as the violently uncontrolled whims of a child. Somewhere people might believe her if she said she was in love.

"Somewhere else? Ames, just how close are you going to be, really?" Sonic was getting haughty with her, all crossed arms, narrowed eyes, attitude.

"Sonic, please! It doesn't even matter!"

"Amy! How could you even say that?"

"Because I want to be alone, Sonic! I want to be away from you!" (Oops, there it was again, the way he flinched). "You and everyone else! I don't want anybody to look at me the way you guys do!" That was right. The way they smiled at her when they thought she was acting particularly innocent, like she hadn't seen the world fall apart just as much as they had. "I'm so sick of everyone handling me with- with kit hands! Like I'll break! You and Sally especially! Like…" Like it was so cute she'd even tried to win Sonic. Like Sally had to pity her and be extra nice just because she owed it to her for the pain she'd caused her. Like Sonic had to give her crumbs of affection here and there just to make her happy with little mirages of what might have been, like she had to be appeased, "... like I won't be here very long." Long enough to grow up. Long enough for them to take her seriously. Like she'd be satisfied with her time with them and move on, so what she felt and thought and fought wasn't really important. She wasn't important. She had to go be important somewhere else, to somebody else. And that hurt more than anything.

She twisted on her heel, headed for the stairs. "See you later, then, Sonic."

Maybe, just maybe, that hadn't been fair. Cream had never done anything wrong, but she supposed Cream was a symptom of the problem. She loved her, dearly, like a sister, but what she'd always assumed must look like an Older Sister-Little Sister relationship probably looked like two little girls, equal in maturity and worth, and while she'd never say Cream's opinions were worth nothing, she'd stray to say that neither of them were taken very seriously. Cream and her mother were likely going to be the only ones she gave her new address to… or maybe not. Cream was sweet enough, and loved her enough, to give the address out like candy to anybody willing to bring her back to this little round house. She pressed a hand to her wall, against the empty square place a photo of her and the gang used to be.

And it sucked. It hurt. Because No more Bunnie, Sally, Sonic, or Eggman also meant no more Cream, Shadow, or Tails. Because it was already hard enough saying goodbye to the hammer and the love of her life, and saying goodbye to the people she loved was like rubbing Kosher Salt in an open, sobbing wound. Ugh. She wouldn't cry, again. What happened downstairs with Sonic was a fluke. A big, stupid, over-emotional fluke. Sonic would probably just report that she'd been a little moody with him, that she was moving, and that would be the end of it. She'd probably get a lot of messages on her phone, she'd probably respond with an overabundance of emojis, and then they wouldn't hear from her for a while.

What would her life look like three, four months down the line? Would she find a job doing something she was passionate about? Would she sit alone in a pretty cafe with a cappuccino in her gloved hand? She'd make friends, she figured she would. What would she bond over? She could take them shopping, dress them up, let them dress her up. They could go day-drinking and go to the beach, take pictures and gossip about celebrities, or their workplace (depending on Answer # 2). Would she maybe meet somebody? Somebody who would take her feelings seriously? Somebody who would hold her without her asking him to? Would he spoil her with lots of gifts and chocolates, or would their idea of extravagance be a candlelit dinner in the small, cozy nook she was about to call a kitchen? Or maybe, he'd be more adventurous. Maybe his idea of a date would be swinging through jungles with her under his arm, and going toe-to-toe with some mummies in a pyramid. Maybe his idea of a romantic date was taking her up the tallest tree in the forest to see the stars. Maybe she'd marry him.

Her first foot landed on the top floor, and she took another, and another until she was nearly walking right into blue.

She kept her eyes down, "Amy, c'mon, dontcha' think you're overreacting?"

"Well, I guess that's what kids do, don't they? Overreact?"

Sonic sputtered, "T-That's not what I meant-!"

"Sonic." He swallowed his words, and when she finally raised her head to meet his eyes, he almost looked nervous, "It's over." And she meant that in so many ways.

"Amy-"

"I won't follow you around anymore."

"H-...Huh?" She made a move to get by, but he blocked her, "Amy, what are you talking about?" And if she didn't know him any better, she'd have thought there was a shrillness to his tone. Panic. But that wouldn't be, and she wouldn't read into it, "C'mon! It's me!"

Yes, yes it was. The love of her life, the thing that kept her training so hard every day with her hammer, her every reason to smile at the end of a bad day and cry when he had a bad one, it was all Sonic. And now, she was letting him go. For good. In, she breathed, out. "I know that. Don't make Sally cry, okay? She deserves somebody willing to put the effort in. So no missing dates, and no flirting, got that?" And she pressed a hand to his shoulder, a little surprised when she found him moving as she pushed him, like butter. He must have understood that she needed to go, so she- strawberry jam, her favorite romantic comedy, ice skating- smiled, "As I said, I'll see you later, Sonikku."

And she could feel his eyes on her back as she retreated to her bedroom, where those boxes were still wide open, unstuffed with bubble wrap. She'd just handle those later, after she'd finished- "Will you?" She paused, looking up from where she'd crouched on the floor to see Sonic hanging off her door frame. His hands clenched at either side of him, and his eyes were big, and focused, and she swore they sparkled in her fluorescent light.

She blinked, "What?"

"Will you be seeing me later?" His hands slid down the paved-white frames, "... or is this goodbye?"

Maybe for the first time that night, her smile was genuine, and that was only because she could tell his tone was. He cared about her. Really. That was more than she thought she'd get, "Well I guess that depends on whether or not you come see me, huh?"

His eyes lit up, and the tiniest trace of his signature smile returned, "So where are you-?"

"Nope!"

"-Huh?"

"Not telling you. You'll just have to figure out where I'm going, yourself!

Sonic stared blankly at her for a moment. She stood, an open box in her hands, trying to hide the pictures of the two of them together that filled the cardboard (he saw them, there was a flash of hurt in his eyes as he noted the keep put away designation written on the side closest to him in sharpie). "I wouldn't be running away if I just told you where I was going, right?"

"B-But-But-!"

"Besides, it wouldn't kill you to chase after me for once, would it?" She brushed by him, intent on carrying the box down the stairs to the kitchen where her scissors and duct tape still sat unbothered on her marble counters.

Sonic snorted, and then he laughed, rubbing under his nose. "All right, then, Rosy. Game on!"

Wanna see the next chapter two weeks before it gets published here?

Head over to my tumblr: iamwhelmed

This whole damn fic came about because I stumbled across that patronizing message Aly wrote to Amy in the one comic. "You're so young!", "You'll look back on this and laugh!", "You're too young to know what love is" blah blah blah horrible narrative reason the author gave us because they didn't understand Amy. Fine. You want Amy to grow up? Here's what real Amy growing up looks like- and Sonic would hate. it.

Don't worry, this is endgame sonamy, but this is also loosely based on this fanfic here: s/5256024/1/Sixteen-Signs (fantastic read, hurts so good, but I need to give Amy a happy ending).

Sonic can act like he doesn't care all he wants- the moment Amy gives up on him, that's gonna hurt.