Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Quick, grab everything on that shelf and let's bolt!"

"WHY did I agree to help you?!"

"Damn it! The police is here! We gotta move!"

Rouge quickly began scanning her digital map of the area projected by her watch, ignoring her panicked companion as well as the sirens sounding from outside the jewelry store. "There's an entrance to the roof. We're gonna have to fly out", she concluded, tying the bag of newly stolen merchandise and swinging it over her shoulder.

"But won't they see us like that?", Silver questioned from his position by the window.

"They've got the place surrounded. It's the only unguarded exit", she answered, already ascending the stairs, "Now move it!".

As she spoke, gunshots beagan sounding, and an onslaught of deadly missiles began flying through every window and other opening available.

"SILVER!"

Prologue...

Chapter Text

Amy was excited. And nervous. But excited! It was her very first day of school after transferring. She just couldn’t wait to make so many new friends!  

Humming some incredibly upbeat cheesy song, she happily marched down the sidewalk towards the building. Even from this distance, she could see it was painted a bright orange with blue accents. It was surprisingly pretty for a high school building.  

She glanced down, adjusting the white buttoned shirt upon her dark navy blue skirt. It had come with a blazer jacket, but it was much too hot to start wearing it just yet. She had to admit, her old uniform was nicer, but it wasn’t like this one was bad , by any means.  

“Class, this is Amy Rose. She’s a transfer student. Everyone say hi”.  

Amy stood next to the teacher, in front of the whole class. She hadn’t realized she had a shy side until now.  

“Hi, Amy”, the class chorused.  

“Uh, hi...”  

“Welcome to Owlford high. Why don’t you introduce yourself?”, the teacher smiled.  

“Oh, um, Okay. I’m Amy Rose. I’m transferring here from Armvard high. I’m very excited to meet you all”, she replied.  

“That’s nice! We have an empty desk waiting for you right here”, the teacher beamed, gesturing to the seat, “I’m Mrs. Lullaby. Feel free to ask me for help with anything”.  

“Okay...!”.  

Glancing to her right –to her left was only a wall- she saw that the student seated next to her was an almost white male hedgehog with five oddly placed locks of quills atop his head, and a pair of attention grabbing golden rings around his wrists. Of course, gold rings were nothing to write home about, they were quite common, she herself was currently sporting a pair, but these were much thicker and wider, and had a neon turquoise line making its way along their center. Come to think of it, he had a strange mark on his hands of a similar color.  

She was about to say hi, when Mrs. Lullaby began the lesson, and he seemed very invested in it.  

Lunch break. The absolute nightmare of all nightmares.  

It was too bad she was transferring in the middle of the semester like this. Everyone already knew each other. She would hate to intrude upon an already existing friend group, or worse, feel like an outsider among them.  

Glancing around, she scanned the cafeteria for an empty table. Locating her objective, she began making a beeline towards it, carefully balancing her tray as she walked.  

She had only been seated for a few minutes when another tray was aggressively smashed onto the table, accompanied by a far too loud for her liking bang of metal against metal. She winced at the sound.  

“Mind if I sit here?”, came an enthusiastic inquiry, delivered by an equally excited looking lemur. She was black and white, with a large floof of fur atop her head acting as bangs. The navy blue strings around her collar that were meant to be tied together into a loose bow were left dangling on her torso, and only half her shirt was tucked in, which could have been intentional, but it lacked execution. Her ear splitting grin was bright enough to put the sun to shame.  

“Oh! Sure!”, she replied, more than happy to have some company.  

“I’m Tangle! What’s your name?”, the lemur beamed, seating herself opposite her.  

“I’m Amy Rose. I’m new here”, she giggled.  

“Nice t’meet you, Amy!”  

“I like your bangs!”, Amy complemented.

“Thanks, I like your hair! How did you get it to go down like that? Don’t hedgehog quills usually stick out of the back of your head?”, Tangle gestured wildly to empasis her point.

“Oh, it just does that on its own. I’m not sure why”, she laughed, feeling the quills as she spoke.  

“By the way, do you know where I could find a twelve story ladder?”  

“Haha, what?”. Amy felt her brain stop working.

“I need one for my science project”  

“Do I wanna know?”  

So it turned out Tangle was a sophomore, which made her a year older than her. Although, Amy didn’t think she’d ever seen someone hang from a lamppost by their tail before. She certainly hoped they could become close friends.  

Chapter one...  

Chapter Text

School, day two! And somehow she was late!

“Yo, Amy!”, Tangle waved from the front gate.

“Whew...How did you get here so early?”, Amy panted, coming up to her new friend, “I got up at seven in the morning!”

“Really? And I got here first? But I get up at seven thirty!”

“Wow...Your house must be closer to here than mine...”

“Haha! Yeah, that’s probably it! Where do you live?”

“Oh, I live at 203 sunset avenue!”

“Wait, really? That's way closer to school than my house!”

“Maybe it’s just magic then...”

Oh, why was this classroom so noisy?

It was true the teacher was a little late, but this was a bit much...

Navigating her way through the (nearly) screaming students, she made her way to her desk, which was anything but peaceful.

Slam!

Ah, yes. No high school would be complete without bullies. And here were three, whom she was sure weren’t from this class, slamming some poor kid onto her desk.

“Hahaha! Look at this loser! Why don’t you do something about your hair, you dork!”, one of them laughed, and oh how it made her blood boil.

Wait, wasn’t that the kid who sat in the desk next to her? Well, she had to admit his air was a bit out of the ordinary, but she kinda liked it...

Slamming her bag onto the desk –with more force than she intended– she smiled ever so sweetly at the bullies.

“Excuse me, but this is my desk. Do you mind moving?”

“Moving? Why? It’s not like you’re using it!”, one of them mocked. She was the only female of the three, and she appeared to be some sort of bird, although she wasn’t sure what.

“Well, class is about to start, so I'd like to set up”, she smiled even brighter, her eyes staring into their souls.

The first of them, a green hawk with his feathers styled to resemble a mowhawk, engaged her in a staring match, glaring at her in what he assumed to be an intimidating manner. She glared back.

Engaging evil vibes mode.

“Ugh, whatevs! The teacher’ll be here any minute now anyway. Let's bounce”, he muttered, making for the door, the other two in tow.

“Uh, th-thank you!”, the kid whom had been the object of their criticism stammered.

“You’re welcome! I’m Amy, by the way”, she beamed (an actual not spine shivering smile).

“I’m Silver!”

“Great to meet you, Silver! And between you and me, you have great hair!”, she extended her hand.

Silver happily shook it.

“Thanks! So do you!”

“Do people pick on you like that often?”, she implored.

“Oh. Yeah...”, he scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“Those idiots! I hate bullies! Who do they think they are!”, she yelled, striking a comically aggravated pose.

“I mean, they kinda have a point...”

“No! No they don’t! Don’t listen to a word they say, okay!”

“Whatcha doin’ after school today? Wanna hang out?”.

“No, sorry. I have cricket class after school”.

Tangle deflated disappointedly, “Cricket? You mean that old game rich fancy British people play that’s kinda like golf?”

“Yeah! It’s actually a lot of fun! I have to bring a change of clothes with me in my backpack because I head over there right after school”.

“Can I come with? I don’t have anything to do today”.

“Homework?”, she raised an eyebrow.

“Besides that!”

“Fine! But don’t come crying to me when you get bad grades!”

“Yay!”

Chapter two...

Chapter Text

The two girls giggled happily, making their way across the front lawn.  

“Let’s take the back gate. It’ll get us there faster”, Amy suggested, already heading in its direction.  

“Okay!”, Tangle beamed, “lead the way, cap’n!”  

“Haha! Sure, follow me, first mate!”, she laughed.  

Turning the corner, they came across what looked to be a student sitting on the ground with his back to the building and his hands covering his upwardly tilted face.  

“ That’s guy’s a real jerk ”, Tangle whispered, “He stares at people during lunch. And some kids were complaining that he stalked them for a while too. We should avoid him”. She tried to pull her away.  

“But he looks upset!”, Amy objected.  

“Yeah, well he deserves it! He’s really mean to anyone that tries to talk to him!”, Tangle returned.  

Ignoring her, she approached him anyway.  

“Amy!”, she whisper-screamed.  

“Excuse me...Are you okay?”  

Glancing at her, the student, who was a black hedgehog with red stripes, merely gave her a cold glare in response, rose to his feet, and began walking in the other direction.  

“Are you ignoring me?”, she called after him, offended.  

He simply kept walking.  

“Hey!”, she cried, now fully aggravated.  

“Shut up and mind your own business”, he deadpanned, not even bothering to turn and look at her.  

“Humph!”, What a jerk!  

“Told you. Now let’s go!”  

Chapter three...  

Chapter Text

“Alright, class! You have a book report due next Monday!”, Mrs. Lullaby announced.  

“Whaaa-! But that’s so soon!”, one of the students complained.  

“Yes, Puppet. It is soon. That’s why you’ll be pairing up for this one”.  

Ughhh, group projects...  

Glancing around, Amy realized she didn’t know anyone. Well, she did know one person. But did he want to pair up?  

Luckily enough, he looked at her immediately. Oh, right. He said he got bullied often. Did he not have any friends then?  

“Wanna team up?”, she whispered.  

Silver nodded enthusiastically.  

They agreed to meet up at the library during lunch to discuss the project.  

“Ughhh, how can you read during lunch time?!”  

“Shut up, Tangle! This is the only time we’re both available!”, Amy grumbled, trying to remove the older teen who had chosen to become a limp sack of potatoes on her lap. “If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t have tagged along!”  

“But I had to know who your partner is! I can’t just let any random person hang out with my best friend, especially since yesterday you proved that you clearly are a terrible judge of character!”  

“I saw a person who looked upset! I couldn’t help it!”  

Silver peeked from behind a bookshelf several rows away.  

“You said you wanted to avoid horror, right?”, he called.  

“Yeah, and you said no romance, so we can’t pick either of our favourite genres”, she replied, pushing tangle’s leg away from her face.  

“Did you find anything interesting yet?”, he continued, emerging from behind the bookshelf with a very large stack of books.  

“Don’t tell me you’re planning on reading all of those!”, Tangle exclaimed, horrified as she watched him putting the stack between Amy’s bean bag and the chair he claimed after.  

“Nah, we’re just gonna flip through them ‘till we find a good one”, Amy responded, trying to see the book in her hands past the living blanket, “And no, I haven’t found one yet”, she continued, turning to her partner, “It’d be a lot easier if I could see ,”.  

“Hey, is that guy staring at us?”, Tangle deflected, twisting around to look at the door.  

“Don’t change the subject!”, Amy began, only to be interrupted.  

“No, really! The creepy guy from yesterday is standing outside and staring at us!”, she insisted.  

“What creepy guy from yesterday?”, Silver asked worriedly.  

Amy struggled to remove herself from beneath her very much not weightless companion. “He is?”.  

“Yeah, and he’s not even trying to hide it! He knows I see him and he just keeps staring!”, Tangle pointed.  

Silver got up to check, Amy unable to and Tangle showing no signs of removing herself. He made a face, returning to his seat. “Just ignore him. It'll just get worse if you say anything”.  

“Wah- But what if he does something weird?!”, Amy protested.  

“He won’t”, Silver assured.  

“How do you-”.  

“He won’t ”, he insisted. “He’s not here for you, he’s here for me,”.  

Chapter four...  

Chapter Text

Silver explained that the strange hedgehog follows him around all the time when they’re in school, and that he didn’t know why, but he never did anything weird, and instructed them not to question him, or else he would start following them around too, as had happened with similarly curios, disturbed or aggravated people.  

They went back to the book report after that, choosing a relatively unknown book by someone with a weird name, about a girl who escaped a slave caravan, joined a circus and met a goddess.  

They ended up splitting the book in two, Amy working on the first half, and Silver on the second –obviously, they both read the whole thing through first– and worked on it over the weekend.  

During that time, the black hedgehog, whom Amy had taken to referring to as “The creepy guy”, continued to stalk them whenever Silver was around, although he did so less and less as the days progressed.  

Amy liked working in the dead of night. To be honest, that’s when the creative juices flowed the most. Of course, her parents didn’t like to see their daughter stay up late into the night working on homework , Gia forbid. Especially when she only lit a single yellow lamp by her side and left the rest of the room dark. It would ruin her eyes, they said , but it set such a nice atmosphere.  

Opening the door, her father walked in, switching the light on.  

Amy screeched like a vampire in response, “Ahh! My eyes!”  

Chuckling, he turned it back off. Moving a chair to her desk, he sat next to her. “So, what has you working this late to finish?”, he asked, looking at the papers scattered before her.  

“Eh, book report. It’s due tomorrow”, she replied, turning back to the aforementioned project.  

“Mm”, he hummed. “And why are you putting this much effort into this one? You usually only spend a day working on these things”.  

“Well, it’s my first project in this school”, she answered readily. She never really put up walls with her dad. “I want to make a good first impression with my teachers”, she declared, smile determined. “Plus, I’m working on it with a partner, and I’d hate it if he got bad grades because of me”.  

“What if the opposite happens? And you get bad grades because of him?”, he quirked a grin, showing that he wasn’t taking the question too seriously.  

“Well then, I'll just have to break his nose”, she joked, laughing.  

“So how much do you have left?”, he asked, turning back to the unfinished report.  

“Not much. I’d say it’ll take me another hour or so”, she replied, after thinking it over for a few seconds.  

“You get half”, he smiled mischievously, getting up and leaving te room before she could protest.  

She smiled after him.  

Chapter five...  

Chapter Text

Okay, Amy had had. Enough. “The creepy guy” was really starting to get on her nerves, the way he unashamedly followed them around whenever she was with Silver, suspiciously glaring at her like he expected her to grow another head.  

He didn’t even try to hide it!  

She wanted to know more about this person. Not knowing made her feel like she was at a disadvantage, since he gave the impression that he knew more about her than she did about him. You know, since she knew literally nothing. Not even his name!  

And apparently, no one else did, since he really never talked to anyone. Which put her at a dead end.  

She had tried going around looking for info –by means of gossip– but was led to only more questions.  

Okay, so maybe she found some less than useful but better than nothing information. Like that he was a senior, and he spent most of his free time during school hours staring at no one in particular during lunch. He never seemed to eat during the designated hours. Or any hours at all. No one at school had ever seen him eat, which she wasn’t sure was of any importance. He was also apparently very skilled in P.E, and got very good grades, according to his classmates. Oh yeah, she also knew which class he was in now. She also found out that if anyone approached him would merely ignore them, and snap if they were too persistent. She knew that from experience.  

Thinking back on the day she first bumped into him, he seemed rather upset that day. She wondered why...  

Oh right, back to reviewing what she’d discovered from her little hunt. Apparently, some kids had witnessed one particular student, a sophomore, speak to him freely, and although still ignored, would not be snapped at, and although few and far between, he even got the occasional reply, although he refused to look at him.  

Quite the interesting piece of information. Probably the only info she could use. Upon further inquiry, she discovered the person to accomplish the impossible was one of the popular kids, by the name Sonic the hedgehog.  

Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to seek him out today. She'd just have to do it tomorrow.  

Chapter six...  

Chapter Text

They ended up getting an A- for the book report. Amy knew all that late night work would pay off!  

Anyway, she had far more pressing matters at hand.  

“So, does anyone know who ‘Sonic the hedgehog’ is?”, she asked the two other people sitting at their lunch table. Tangle was sitting next to her, and Silver was opposite her.  

“What?”, they both asked in confusion.  

“Well, I did some digging on The creepy guy, and apparently this ‘Sonic’ guy is like, the only person he ever talks to”, she explained. “And I’m getting really annoyed not knowing anything about the person stalking you, and us along with you, and he’s my only lead”.  

Unexpectedly, Silver burst into laughter at that.  

“What’s so funny?”, Amy asked, offended.  

“Nothing, nothing. It’s just of course Sonic’s the only person he talks to!”, he explained.  

“Why?”, Tangle asked.  

“Haha, nothing”, he brushed off. “But if you wanna talk t’him about him, he’s over there”, he pointed to the other side of the cafeteria.  

Amy looked in the direction, her eyes landing on a blue hedgehog, his quills slicked to the back of his head and his uniform shirt unbuttoned to reveal a white tank top with a print of a sneaker and some text on it in bright oranges, reds and yellows. He was standing next to and assumingly joking with three other kids.  

He’s kinda handsome, she found herself involuntarily thinking. She shook the thought away quickly, focusing on her objective. Get information on The creepy guy.  

“Okay, I’ll go talk to him”, she announced, standing and heading in his direction. She then immediately returned, a sheepish smile on her face. “Anyone know anything about him I can complement him for?”. Amy wasn’t tactless. She knew she couldn’t just walk up to him and say ‘Hey, what’s your deal with The creepy guy?’ . She would have to be more subtle than that.  and nothing starts a conversation like complements.  

“Yeah, he’s in the class next to mine. Apparently, he’s just incredible in gym class”, Tangle offered.  

“That’ll work”, Amy nodded. “Okay, now I’m going to talk to him”.  

Upon closer inspection, she realized the three people he was talking to were the bullies who were picking on Silver, and suddenly he didn’t seem so appealing anymore.  

“Excuse me”, she began, gaining all four’s attention. “I’m Amy Rose”.  

“Uh, hi?”, Sonic responded, his face confused. “Can I help you with something?”.  

“Nah, I just heard you were the most athletic kid in school”, she exaggerated, “and wanted to see for myself”. She smiled brightly.  

He smirked in response. “Thank you, thank you”, he bowed dramatically. “Y’know, if you really want a demonstration, I believe there’ll be a soccer game this Wednesday”, he leaned forward, and Amy wasn’t happy with how fast her heart was suddenly beating. “spectators welcome”, he winked, before turning back to his friends. “So what were you saying, Wave...?”.  

Thank goodness she wasn’t blushing.  

Not to toot her own horn, but Amy was pretty good at acting. Now she had a small idea of what he was like, and a time and place he was likely to be at so she could continue her pursuit. And maybe a little crush to go with it, but that wasn’t important!  

Chapter seven...  

Chapter Text

“I got a D?!”, Amy nearly screeched, horrified as she looked at the homework she had just got back. Math may not be her strong suit but she wasn’t that bad! She frantically skimmed over her answers and the grading, and suddenly things were looking suspicious.  

“Hey, Silver?’, she called, eyes still on the paper. “Is this how math is normally graded around here?”.  

Silver walked over, glancing at her paper before responding. “U, yeah. At least that’s how mine usually is”.  

“But this makes no sense! We're losing marks over things like handwriting!”, she protested, turning to him with near panic in her eyes.  

He chuckled humorlessly. “I don’t think Mr. Clique will ever be satisfied with my handwriting.  

“Wha- but you have great handwriting!”, she complained.  

“Not good enough, apparently”, he replied.  

“That’s just silly! I'm gonna go have a talk with him!”, she declared, already moving towards the teacher’s desk.  

“Mr. Clique!”, she called, an edge of annoyance in her frantic voice. “This makes no sense!”. She slammed the homework paper on his desk. “Why did you give me such a bad grade?”.  

“It’s stated on the paper”, he replied curtly.  

“Taking up too much space on the paper is not a valid reason to give me a bad grade!”, she insisted, pointing at the offending equation.  

“The answer to this equation was 36. Your answer is 258. I did not grade you unfairly”, he countered, arms crossed as he nodded towards the problem in question.  

“Sir, I have no objection to getting a bad grade over that, I acknowledge that I made some mistakes. I do however, object to loosing marks because of something this silly!”, she pointed at another problem in which ‘there wasn’t a coma between every three digits’ .  

“My grading system is entirely fair, little missy”, Mr. Clique replied, “now if you please, I have other matters to attend to,”. He turned to a stack of paper on his desk, ignoring any other attempt to get his attention.  

Amy returned to her seat with a grumble, receiving a sorry smile from Silver.  

Chapter eight...  

Chapter Text

“Yeah, then I hit the board so hard the nail went straight through!”, Amy concluded with a laugh.  

“Wow! Are you sure you’re not secretly a body builder or something?!”, Tangle exclaimed in admiration.  

“Haha, don’t be silly! I’m not that strong!”, she returned, before stopping dead in her tracks at the sound of yelling.  

“ Shut up! I don’t want to hear your excuses!”, someone all but screamed.  

Turning the corner, they found themselves facing none other than Sonic and the three bullies from the other week. The green one was standing with his back to a locker, the other two by his side watching uncomfortably as Sonic stood with a hand on either side of his head and an expression of pure rage on his face.  

“ Leave him alone , or else!”, he continued yelling.  

“Or else what?!”, the green one retorted. Amy had never bothered to learn his name.  

“Or else I will ruin you,”.  

“Ruin me?”, he smirked. “Just who do you think you are?”.  

“Someone you’ve let your guard down around a little too much. I’ve seen what kinds of things you do. Things that could get you in jail ,”.  

He paled, before countering, “What proof do you have?!”. His voice was almost frantic.  

“Undeniable evidence”, he responded. He jerked his head to the side at the sound of something slamming against a locker.  

Tangle smiled sheepishly in his direction, which he ignored, pushing off the wall he had been leaning against and hurriedly leaving in the other direction.  

Well. That was interesting, to say the least.  

Chapter nine...