Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Busy, everything is way too busy. Inside a subway train sits Sonic as his legs gently sway along with the movement. In the busy car, Sonic squeezes his hoodie over his quills tighter as the train continues to move. He does not mind being recognized as himself, but in busy places like Central City, it tends to bother him. From the last few places he stopped at, people were asking him questions or being a classic fan for a long time as they wanted pictures.

It did not bother him, but it did. Sonic shuffles as a human sits closer to him. The train car is crowded as people are heading home from work. Mostly humans with a few animals like him in the train, which made him a little lucky with his hoodie.

The clothing feels weird on him, but he must deal with it as he is in a public place with no exit available. Trying not to panic, Sonic takes deep breaths in and out as his eyes are shut with his concentration. Only two more stops to go and he is free. He would not be here in the first place if Tails was at his home instead of visiting Professor Pickle with no warning. 

Actually, there was a note at the door. Instead of sending a warning text, Sonic did tell Tails his thoughts about it. Things did not go too well, as his little brother did berate him about always crashing at his place a lot. Tails always worried about Sonic not owning a place, but it usually worked out. 

“Next Stop, Central City.” The train operator muffles as people get off this station.

Relaxing a little more, Sonic sees that there is more room now to breathe. His hand lowers from holding onto the hood above his head. Resting his head back, Sonic tries to ignore the people all inside the car he is with. His phone buzzes, probably another text from Tails. His little brother has been trying to help him get a place to stay for the night. 

“Sonic, you can not just sleep on someone's roof.” 

“Why not? I usually do it and nothing bad happens!” Sonic texts back immediately.

The few dots dance around as Tails types. Sonic taps his foot as he waits for whatever his brother is wanting to warn him about. Knowing that Tails is just worried makes Sonic feel better inside a closed car with a bunch of people that probably know him.

“There is a chance of rain tonight. Professor Pickle suggests that you get a place to stay, even if the chance is low as it is.” Tails seems serious with his message.

A low chance, Sonic chuckles silently in his head. “Please, if I need to, I will find a place to hide for the night.”

“SONIC!” Tails types back as soon as Sonic sends his message. 

“I have it on the back of my mind, okay? It will be fine, come on, it is only a small chance.” Sonic types his response with some doubt.

The three dots blink dance around in the bubble, occasionally disappearing. Sonic taps his foot faster as he waits for his brother to reply. As he waits, he scans the car crowded with people. Most are on their phones, probably tired from what they did during the day. 

Shaking in his hand, his phone vibrates. Sonic taps it on, ready to see a text from Tails with doubt. Instead, to his own shock, Tails only sends a thumbs up emoji. Knowing his brother, who does not send emojis much, probably is busy now. Tails did go to Professor Pickles not for a vacation, but for research and studies about some topic Sonic skipped over from the note because he did not understand any words that Tails had written down.

Putting his phone away, Sonic shuffles in his small blue hoodie. Zipping the zipper up more, Sonic covers his body as he glances around the car. A little kid holding their father’s hand smiles at him as he stares. Giving a smile in return, Sonic waves to the kid. 

Tugging at their father’s clothing, the kid whispers, “is that Sonic?”

Alarmed, Sonic eyes the area for an exit. He could not be spotted, especially by a kid. He knew wearing only a small blue hoodie would not be enough, but pants are something he still does not like to wear. Arguing with his own decisions, Sonic watches as the father turns to face him.

“Maybe so, but if it even was he may be tired and it will rain soon.” The father lifts the kid up, “so we should leave him alone. You could just give him a smile, I am sure he would appreciate that.”

Thanking the father over and over in his head, Sonic relaxes back into the seat. However, his mind disagrees as it thinks about what he said. Another person mentioned rain, yet when he was outside there were not many clouds. It is getting late and he needs to find shelter for the night soon. Green Hills is too far of a travel, Angel Island is a hard pass, there is more, but Central City is the next stop. Speaking of the stop, Sonic hears through the muffled radio system a voice.

“Arriving, Central City.” The voice probably says, as that is what Sonic thinks he heard. 

Getting ready, Sonic hops off his seat before the train stops. The kid and their father are already at the door, which Sonic walks beside them. Deciding to thank them, Sonic lowers his hood just enough to show his face for them to see him smile. The kid gasps as they struggle to get out of their father’s hands.

“Woah, no need to get all excited. Thanks for the smiles, I sure needed them.” Sonic winks at the kid, who listens as they stay in their father’s hands. “You got a lovely kid there, have a good night.”

Waving, the kid smiles brightly as the doors start to open. Sonic dashes out, the blue streak follows him as he rushes to the exit. The crowd is small, but still there as he avoids people with his running. Approaching the restrooms, Sonic dashes into one to figure out where he is. Walking over to the mirror, Sonic pulls the hoodie backup to hide most of his face.

However, he stops as he sees his face better in the blinding white buzzing lights. His bags under his eyes look rounder as they are a darker haze than his skin. His eyes lost their dazzle for adventure, the green looks as if it needed some spark to light them up again. Even his smile looks off, his entire face looks worn out. Frowning, Sonic shoves the hoodie above his quills as he shuffles outside the restroom. 

He feels more secure of not being called out as he walks out to see people roaming together. Staying with the crowd, he climbs the stairs out of the underground subway. Close to the exit, Sonic starts to think about where he should crash for the night. There are a few hotels he can think of, but late night arrivals usually had more to do and he did not feel like dealing with a guessing game. Central City always has some event going on that means almost every room is booked in hotels.

Grumbling as he reaches the doors, Sonic exits the building. Outside the city is not busy, but still has people. Walking past the small crowd, Sonic decides to head to the park nearby to think things out. 

After crossing the street, Sonic checks around to see if anyone is watching him. Deciding it is safe, Sonic speeds up his feet, running now to the park. He could go slow, but he wanted to sit and relax, which was the whole reason in the first place why he wanted to stay with Tails. The fox would usually let Sonic relax as they would actually go to bed or would spend most the night chatting or spending time together. It was always relaxing, it made Sonic feel refreshed each morning more than sleeping by himself.

Seeing the familiar buildings and lights, Sonic slows down his speed. Leaving himself a block to walk, Sonic starts to think about a spot for the night. He needs somewhere to stay, maybe he would have to go with an abandoned building or room nearby. Maybe he could even just sleep at the park, no one would really care, right?

Sonic chuckles to his half-hearted joke, sitting down on a bench. Seeing that he reached the park, Sonic tries to relax as he sits out in the open. He stares at the gazebo a little away, the few trees rustling in the wind. The small park has a playground to the left, which Sonic never used unless Tails or Cream wanted to. Those two every time they came usually would play with something there. This park, most of the times they went here if he was staying at Tails or shopping.

Tonight, it is only Sonic here. Resting his head back, Sonic gazes at the sky above. The city lights usually make it hard to see the sky, but tonight he could see the sky. The sky is not clear, only clouds above. His mind wanders back to the father and kid, they mentioned the rain along with Tails. Could a small chance really have rain? Sonic grumbles his thoughts as he pulls his phone out to check again.

His weather app did raise the chance, but it is now above thirty percent. Skimming over the app, Sonic checks out the other information they have about the radar. It shows a storm, a massive storm heading straight for the city. In fact, as Sonic sees the radar, it should be nearly here now.

Like on cue, a flash from the sky makes the blue hedgehog jump. A quiet rumble follows the flash, adding a few drops of water to splash down. Sonic feels the small drips hit his hood, knowing the storm is here and is starting. As the rain grows, Sonic zips over to the gazebo to stay dry. 

The rain starts to fall, it is a small amount, but still counts. Sonic thought the gazebo with the roof would protect him from the water, but being a park that has not been worked on within probably years, the roof has holes. Sonic feels the water rarely splat on his head. After a third drop, Sonic pulls his hoodie back up more. 

“Why did it have to be water?” Sonic mumbles to himself as he sits on the bench at the corner of the brown gazebo. 

His phone vibrates, it makes Sonic quickly check. The notification is the weather app alerting him that there is a sudden change in weather. 

He feels like he wants to strangle someone.

Without a single thought, Sonic’s hand blots up with his phone. Before he could toss his phone in anger, another vibrate brings him to his senses. Lowering his hand, Sonic checks the other notification to see Tails texted him.

“Have you found a place to stay yet? Send me a picture to clarify.” Tails sent the text with a red exclamation emoji after the sentence.

Looking around, Sonic has no spot to take a photo. He has the message on read now and he knows how Tails will get antsy if he does not reply, especially when he is unsafe according to Tails.

Sonic texts back slowly, “I have not found a place, but do not worry bud. It is not even raining here.”

He cringes a little at his lie, hopefully Tails would not notice. Sonic watches as the rain falls down gently. At least it is a drizzle and not a downpour, Sonic smirks as he tries to think more happy thoughts.

A vibrate from his hand draws his attention. “You did not send me a picture…” A few dots appear before he continues, “ But I can let it be for now, this does not mean we are not going to have a talk once I get back. Talk to you soon, Sonic.”

Sonic feels better as he texts back a thumbs up emoji. Having Tails off his track is one thing, even if that means to deal with a long chat with his brother later. For now he needs to deal with the main task of the night. Where would he sleep, which he is now starting to lean to the idea of sleeping in the gazebo.

Sonic lays against the wood, his legs laying down on the bench. He could sleep here, just needs to make sure no rain can leak through to him. Just as Sonic tries to get comfortable, a few drops of liquid hit his hood from the ceiling.

“Of course..” Grumbling, Sonic scoots to another side of the round gazebo.

Sonic scoots around, trying to find a spot to avoid any rain. He fails over and over as either the roof leaked or the wind blew the liquid at him. His anger starts to boil as he moves under the bench, hidden away from the rain.

No liquid hits him, only it is rather cold on the wood floor that the wind was blowing through the fenced parts. This spot could work, Sonic starts to prepare the space when a flash of light followed by the loud boom sound makes the hedgehog leap his head into the bench above him.

“Great, just great!” Sonic gets out from underneath the bench. “Can a guy just get a break!”

After he asks, rain starts to downpour. The thunder rumbles faintly with a few other flashes before it starts to quiet down. Sonic angrily hits the sides of the gazebo. All he wanted was a place to stay, he did not care about the sleep even.

Another flash of light, but it is a more blue color. Lifting his hood almost off, Sonic tries to look for the different light source, but fails as he scarcely sees through the dark rain downpour. From above, a drop of liquid lands directly on his cheek, the touch makes Sonic startled as he gives up his comfort by dropping the hood to his back. With the rain leaking, Sonic decides to sit on the steps to think of his next move. 

As he sits down, a sigh escapes him as he lets the rain drizzle onto his head. He hates water, yet there is no way out besides rushing through it all. The only choice is to sleep here or run around until he could find some place better. Both options lead to a drenched Sonic, but it is all he can come up with in the dreaded weather. 

His ears fall down as he glances to the sky. The drops pour down his sides, it feels almost satisfying, yet knowing it is water makes him shudder. Falling back to his feet, his head flops as his body shakes a little from the wind. All he wanted was to relax at his best friend's place, now he is in a park in the middle of a storm. Could things get any worse than they already are? Sonic chuckles at his thoughts, knowing that things definitely could be worse.

“So, this is where you are.”

As if the universe is listening to him, a dark voice from behind echoes almost with the low rumbles of thunder. Sonic perks his head at the voice. His hands rise as he leaps up into a defensive stance. “Yep it's me Sonic, the man, the myth, the legend?” 

Acting tough, Sonic grins faintly as he scans the dim park. Through the rain, he can barely see anything besides the lights. Sonic grips his fist harder as he prepares for some evil being or Eggman to attack him.

From behind, Sonic feels the wind of something moving fast. Within seconds, Sonic ducks in time to avoid a shoe to his face. The shoes looked familiar with the yellow lights of the red back of the shoes and the white and black colors.

“Shadow?!”

Chapter Text

Not believing his sight, Sonic gasps as he sees the Faker in the rain now. Standing up from the ground, Shadow pushes his quills back as the rain pours down on him. His head glances back directly staring at Sonic, his eyes giving the usual burning glare he always has painted on his face. The hedgehog adjusts his pose, his body seems to relax almost as he stares at Sonic with no comment for what feels like minutes.

“What are you doing out here?” Shadow asks as he makes the first move by walking closer to the gazebo.

“Could ask you the same…” Sonic says as he raises his hands back up in case of another foot raised, “why did you try to attack me, I thought we were friends.”

Stopping, Shadow smirks as he stands still under the roof of the gazebo. His quills drip water from them as Sonic hears him chuckle, sounding more aggressive with his tone. In a blink, Shadow’s smirk vanishes as he rolls his eyes at Sonic.

Right, his Faker does not use the word friends. Acquaintances, alliances, rivals, but never friends. Sonic crosses his hands as he waits for Shadow to speak up his thoughts again. 

“Mind if I get back into the gazebo?” Shadow grumbles without waiting for any response, he pushes past Sonic onto the gazebo. 

Sonic lets it slide as his body is not wanting a fight. Shadow moves besides him, directing his whole attention to the great darkness from the storm. Sonic joins in, both of them stare off into the dark evening park, more like nighttime now. 

Many families are probably starting to go to bed now, yet here Sonic is with one of the people he least expected to spend the night under barely a roof. Shadow glares his eyes at Sonic as he stands besides him, looking as if he is trying to warm his body up with his hands slowly moving to his arms. Seeing Shadow wet and looking cold makes Sonic feel a little sympathetic.

Wait, what is he saying? Sonic almost chokes on his snickers at his own thoughts. Shadow is more powerful and dangerous, how could Sonic be worried about him for just being cold? Yep, he must be losing his mind from no sleep. This is now his punishment for not planning ahead when Tails is not around.

The rain splashes around, the two stand in silence as they both watch from the leaky roof. The silence is not deafening, but it starts to make Sonic paranoid as he listens to the same sound repeating over and over. 

“So, what are you doing out here?” Sonic asks as he turns his head to look at the city, “I know you are more of a travel guy.”

“Can ask you the same…” Shadow grunts to Sonic.

With no straight answer, Sonic frowns as he takes his attention to the cement. He watches as the puddles start to rise with each splash of water. Knowing Shadow would refuse to give any information to him, he decides to give in for now as he pays more attention to the rain.

“Fine, Faker. If you won’t talk, then deal with the silence, that is fine with me…” Crossing his hands, Sonic refuses to look at Shadow.

The silence is full of rain. The pittering of each drop as it hits the surface, all copying each other's noise on the different surfaces. The night seems almost to get darker as it goes, barely able to see ahead into the park, Sonic tries to see any movement that came from the park out in the cold rain. 

He could do some all-nighters, but with Shadow, that may be worse. With two opposite hedgehogs here, things are going to take a bad turn for him as Shadow stands still besides him. Sonic already hates the way things are heading as he hears the anger burning through every breath Shadow breathes.

“Can you breathe any quieter?!” Shadow snaps his eyes open as he turns to him with his flaming red eyes.

Sonic blinks blankly as he comprehends what Shadow demanded. As he listens, his own breathing does sound louder than usual. Only one conclusion comes to mind and it makes Sonic take in what he is surrounded by. Water, water is falling all around him and he is standing with almost no protection against it all. He has been taking deeper breaths and longer ones as he may have been trying to calm himself down without realizing his situation.

“Did you not hear me?” Glaring harder, Shadow snarls with frustration.

“Hey, I can't help that rain stresses me out!” Sonic squeaks out a little bit flustered at the situation.

“Yeah right…” Shadow stomps closer to Sonic.

Carefully, Sonic watches as Shadow stands directly in front of him. Glaring, Sonic clutches his fist as he tries to intimidate Shadow away from his face. Both of them now glaring hard that it starts to hurt, Sonic stays put as he lets Shadow back away a few steps to his original spot. 

To irritate Shadow for the fun of it, Sonic starts to mimic what the Faker did. Stomping his own feet, Sonic feels the wood below him creak as he slowly moves closer towards Shadow. If he could get the Faker to be so upset, they may both be Chaos Control out of here to someplace not drenched in water. It is a plan Sonic came up with within seconds to avoid the liquid and save his quills, unlike Shadow here, who still has wet quills.

“Knock it off…” Shadow growls as Sonic inches closer.

Not stopping himself, Sonic smirks as he pretends he is in slow motion like in a movie. His foot up, then slowly he moves the foot back down. Sonic raises his eyebrows up and down as he waits for a reaction from Shadow. Again, Sonic repeats it with his other foot, making it last forever longer than the last. The movement must have struck something inside Shadow, because now Shadow’s own glare lowers into an eye roll of disappointment.

“What are you going to do about it, huh?” Sonic teases a little as he tries to take his mind off the horrible outside that he is stuck with.

“Wait, what is that?” Shadow sounds almost serious as he gazes ahead, outside of the gazebo.

Confused, Sonic leans back as he does not understand Shadow’s sudden change. “What is what?”

“Be quiet you idiot!” Shadow snaps with a flaming glare. 

Surrendering, Sonic lifts his hands as he scoots away. Shadow turns his attention to outside of the gazebo, like if he is listening for something. Sonic starts to copy Shadow’s motions, he raises his head towards the pouring storm out in the open. His ears only picked up the patterns from the rainfall and also gained a few drops of their own by being too close to the edge. He hates how quiet it has gotten now, standing alone with an alert Shadow still listens intensely, guard down from Sonic.

Slowly, Sonic moves closer to Shadow. Giving off the quietest whisper, Sonic speaks, “why are we being quiet?”

“I swear I am going to kill you!” Shadow roars as his hands raise towards Sonic’s throat.

All he can think of is one comeback, “I like to see you try.”

Not a single second wasted, Shadow dashes at Sonic. Moving out of the way within a flash, Sonic runs to the stairs. He watches Shadow almost fall off the gazebo. Balancing himself, Shadow glances with the deadliest glare.

“Oh man, your face!” Sonic snickers as he tries to hold back his laughter.

“You just never take anything seriously!” Shadow shakes his head as he glances back out. “I did hear someone.”

Outside the gazebo, maybe even now watching them? Sinking in on himself, Sonic stops snickering. He moves closer to Shadow as he gazes out. “Why did you not say so?!”

“Because you would make fun of me.”

Now as he thinks about it, he would have not believed Shadow. Instead, he probably would have teased him about horror movies and then tried to scare Shadow. Siding with Shadow, Sonic nods his head a few times as he joins in on trying to find the noise.

“Fair enough, now what are we looking for…” Sonic lowers his voice as he hears a sound different from the rain.

Almost sounding like a crunch, it repeats a few times before it stops. The sound is familiar, yet Sonic can not quite point his finger at where he heard this sound before. 

“They are closer now, great…” Shadow whispers to Sonic, leaning his head out into the rain.

Footsteps on the wet grass, that is the sound. Hearing the footsteps creeping closer, Sonic and Shadow prepare to run. Shadow seems to hold his emerald closer, Sonic noticing the emerald now as he tries to figure out the best run plan. Through the darkness, everything is hard to see as the rain does not help with the lighting at all.

They both stand there for however long, Sonic could not tell how long exactly he was standing and getting his ears wet. The only thing he knew was that they were listening to these footsteps approach. Now sounding almost on top of them, the sound now echoes off the cement. The noise is high pitched, sounding almost like heels on cement. Leaning out more, Sonic notices ahead, an bright red umbrella approaching with a small figure underneath. 

Glancing at Shadow, Sonic sees that he also notices the umbrella. Lowering his guard, Sonic relaxes a little as he watches the umbrella rise up for the person underneath to look at them. Their shoes almost glow in their reflection in the water, the hot pink color makes Sonic almost gape at who it is.

“Oh thank Chaos it is only you two!” Amy chuckles with relief, “I thought you two were some crazy people fighting to stay here for the night.”

Slowly turning to Shadow, Sonic thinks in his mind about how Amy’s statement just described what they are doing. Seeing almost a weaker expiration from Shadow, Sonic can tell that he is also thinking the same thing as Amy laughs at her joke. Trying to move past the thought, Sonic laughs along as he watches Amy quiet down.

“So Ames, what are you doing out this late?” Sonic asks as he changes the subject.

Adjusting her shoulder, Amy explains herself. “Well I was heading home for the night, but then I heard the sound of fighting.”

Puffing her cheeks out, Amy gives a playful glare at them. “Instead I get you two doing your usual ‘fight’”

Sonic sees her using quotation hands with the word fight. “H-hey we never fight, isn’t that right Shads?”

Pulling Shadow beside him, Sonic pats the dark hedgehog’s head twice. Shoving Sonic away, Shadow gives a very faint growl as he snarls, “whatever…”

Seeing how upset Shadow is, Sonic backs away a few steps as Shadow’s ears twitch back. After he backs up, a drop of water blops his head. The sudden touch makes Sonic flinch as he raises his hands up to strike nothing. Exhaling, Sonic tries to calm his sped up heart from the sudden touch of water.

His movement must have caught Amy’s attention. She is now giving both of them a concerned face. “So, if you two were not fighting, then what are you doing here in the middle of a thunderstorm in the night?”

With no hesitation, Shadow walks closer to Amy, “why are you alone in the middle of the night?”

Amy gasps as she looks away flustered. “A-at least I brought an umbrella, being prepared unlike you two idiots!”

“Hey I was going to Tail’s place!” Sonic shouts in defense, “but he is out of the city. That leaves only one unprepared idiot here, right Shadow?”

Staring off into the rain, Shadow stays silent for a few seconds. Breathing out, he moves his crossed hands away from his chest as he grins almost falsely. “I was going to head home, but found this loser out in the rain.”

“Loser?!” Sonic clutches his fist slightly, “so you are now stalking me?”

“If that is what you think, then sure.” Shadow flashes a glare that makes Sonic feel his insides boil.

In a flash, Sonic dashes towards Shadow, ready to fight his Faker. Shadow pushes away as he raises a hand to defend against Sonic. Leaping into the air, Shadow starts to prepare a spin dash. The movement makes Sonic copy the hedgehog, ready with his own counter spin dash.

The two start to move closer and closer, right as they are about to smack into each other, Shadow is flung away. Sonic, having no one to hit, Sonic starts to unroll from his spin. Not being prepared, he falls into the gazebo side. Hitting the wood, Sonic clutches his head as a throbbing pain stings from the fall. Sitting himself up, he stares ahead towards where Shadow is now laying head first on the wood.

Above them both Amy stands tall with her umbrella. She must have smacked Shadow hard with the metal thing, having him just in time avoid Sonic’s spin attack. Groaning, Sonic shakes the pain as he stands up.

“I had enough of this!” Amy’s voice sounds furious, “you two are coming with me!”

From his ear, a bolt of pain rings. Sonic follows along as Amy pulls him by the ear. She brings him over towards Shadow. She releases him as she helps Shadow up. With both of them up, they send different glares at each other, Sonic almost fails to notice Amy wrapping her arms around each of their own. Balancing her umbrella better, she pulls them out into the park.

The rain pours around them, only the wind blowing a few drops to touch them. Surprised, Sonic stares as Amy leads them down the path, heading towards the street. 

“Where are you taking us?” Shadow grumbles from his side, sounding annoyed.

Smiling, Amy looks at both of them with utmost joy. “You will see, now you both better come along unless you want us all to get wet quills!”

Agreeing that wet quills are a disaster, Sonic falls into Amy’s lead. A little shocked, Sonic gazes at Shadow, who is yielding to Amy. The trio walks slowly as they all try to avoid getting any rain to fall onto them. The city glows faintly through the thick darkness as Amy leads them across the streets and sidewalks.

Silently inside his head, Sonic hopes that he can deal with whatever Amy is planning for them. With Shadow on board, things may fall into disaster within minutes. He better stay to help with whatever comes next with this torture.

Chapter Text

Pink, everything is pink. The click of the lock behind them makes Sonic glance behind as he watches Amy walk besides them. She slowly shuts her soaking red umbrella as she lets it lay beside a shoe tray. Walking ahead, Amy continues to smile as she glances back at them.

They are inside Amy Rose's apartment. From the long, aggressive walk, the trio tried to stay under the umbrella. They did almost succeed, but this is him and his rival together with only Amy to stop them from any destruction they wanted to throw at the other. From Sonic and Shadow bickering to Amy about letting them fight to them trying to leave. They both come up with excuses to leave or adjust their arms. It ended in Amy allowing them to get drenched for a little as she opened the door to the apartment building. Now with all them slightly soaked, each shivering as they feel the warmth of Amy’s apartment.

The entryway is small and narrow until it reaches the bathroom and the doorway to the kitchen. Sonic has been here a few times, even battled inside Amy’s place. However, he rarely came as a guest. He walks over to the kitchen, he sees that the living room is ahead. The biggest looking room, it has a pink couch with a television across from it. Sonic almost enters when Amy stops both of them.

“Clean your quills with these.” Amy hands them both towels, “once you are done then you may enter the carpeted rooms.”

The idea of walking on carpet sounds soothing. With no hesitation, Sonic starts rubbing his quills with the towel, wanting to enter the cozy carpeted room. To his right, Shadow holds the towel, his eyes seem to be bouncing around. Right, Shadow rarely has been here. So this is probably his first time as a guest.

“Come on now, get yourselves cleaned up at least.” Amy says as she rubs her own towel in her quills. “Be right back, so do not do anything too stupid.”

Amy exits into the bathroom as she gives both of them a small glare, showing her seriousness. Shadow turns away, finally using his towel to dry his quills, swishing his fur along with them. Sonic adjusts his wet hoodie, carefully he looks around before he walks onto the carpet floor. Looking back, Sonic notices Shadow is now looking around for something.

Walking out of the bathroom, Amy fixes her headband on her head. She seems to snicker as she pokes Shadow’s side. “If you are looking for the emerald, then think again.”

“Where did you put it, women?” Shadow shoots fire with his eyes as he glares.

“Sheesh, it is safe. I'll give it back once the storm is done and it is morning.” Amy playfully nudges Shadow as she moves towards Sonic.

“How about if we both want to leave?” Sonic raises the question.

Amy moves to the side, behind her is the big hammer she has laying beside the umbrella.  “I guess that could work out, but then you also will not get back the emerald.”

Shadow inhales sharply for almost a minute, “fine…”

Sonic swallows hard as he sees Shadow walk over to the carpet side. Amy follows as she pulls blankets out from a shelf. Setting them down, she then goes over to the kitchen.

Knowing how the mood is now, it makes Sonic reflect on the future. All roads will lead to disaster and there was no way to avoid it. Swallowing his concern, Sonic tries to get comfortable as he walks around the room.

“I got some cookies here if you need.” She comes out with a plate full.

“That is great and all, but if you pulled us here to sleep, where are we sleeping?” Shadow grins as he pushes Amy’s buttons.

Seeing how Shadow is trying to bother Amy, Sonic feels his insides tingling in not a good way. His fingers clutch all together as he holds in his anger, not wanting to destroy Amy’s place right now. Huffing out a big breath, Sonic represses his anger as he peeps to see Amy looking frazzled with her plate of cookies.

Before Amy tries to give an answer, Sonic snatches the blankets off the couch. “I can make an area if the need be!”

Amy smiles as she walks over, “oh like the few times you did crash here.”

Seeing Amy smile makes Sonic’s anger diminish as he holds the blankets up. He nods as he starts to come up with ideas of where to crash for the night for the time being, but his ideas pause as he notices Shadow giving a narrow stare.

“What?” Shadow’s stare turns into more of a scowl.

Sonic replies with a snappy attitude, “I would use these blankets here and make a bed on the couch or chair. Occasionally, the floor was a better option, so that is where we will be. In this room, so you do not need to push Amy around with your worries.”

“I was not worried…” Shadow states, his eyes narrowing.

Amy walks closer to them, “guys, please do not start this now!”

Letting it slide, Sonic listens as he turns his attention away from his Faker. His eyes scan the room, looking for different ideas of entertainment. Of course he stops at the television, he walks over towards the table with the machine, seeing all the movies on a shelf and a game council beside it.

Leaving the television, Sonic moves to put the blankets down for later. From the corner of his vision, he spots Shadow watching his movement beside the television stand. Releasing most of the blankets, Sonic checks the other chair. Having the extra, he sets them down next to the chair, which he sits down on. Letting his body relax, Sonic melts into the soft material.

“So, you are taking the chair?” Shadow twitches, his face looks irritated.

“Yeah and what is wrong with that?” Sonic groans from his comfortable position, “I saved you the bigger spot to sleep.”

“Guys, we can discuss this later. How about you have a cookie and relax first?” Amy says peacefully as she sets the plate of cookies down on the pink coffee table.

Smirking, Sonic shrugs as he dusts his hoodie. “Well, we can discuss this later, but I am still sleeping right here.” Sonic unzips his hoodie, sliding it off as he gets comfortable.

Tossing the hood, Sonic notices the cookies Amy set on the table. He reaches out for the plate, but nothing comes into contact with his gloves. Gasping, the plate is gone off the table. Sonic already knows who has them, his smirk falls as he looks up to see Shadow above him with the plate.

“Come on Shads,” winking, Sonic fake smiles. “Let me have a cookie.”

Shadow moves out of hand reach. Sonic slowly sits up as Shadow taunts him by eating one cookie. Shadow’s eyes narrow as he eats the chocolate cookie in front of Sonic. Sonic stands up, but is smacked back down by a blanket. 

“What?” Sonic coughs quietly as he looks to see Shadow eating another cookie. Getting up, Sonic stands up as he tries to be peaceful about this. “Come on, let me at least have one cookie.” 

With his feet on the ground and his body straight, Sonic raises his foot to take a step when he hears something fly through the air. Sonic quickly notices the pillow flying for his head.

The soft fluff meets his face. The impact punches, but the after effect feels nice from the soft material. Siding off his face, the pillow falls to the carpet. Sonic looks around to see Shadow smirking with another small pillow in his other hand.

As seconds slow down, Sonic runs besides Shadow as he throws the pillow at the now empty chair. Going fast enough, the rest of the world slows down as Sonic snatches a cookie off the plate. Landing safely onto the carpet, Sonic poses as he takes a bite of his victory reward.

Right as he hears a crashing sound. Flinching, Sonic lowers his whole body as he worries about turning around. His ears go back as he hears a gasp from Amy, his heart drops as he slowly moves his eyes towards the couch behind him. There, on the mini table next to the chair, a lamp broke on the floor.

Amy rushes to the mess, taking the big piece out as she sees the rest. As she turns, her face falls as she sees both of them watching her. Amy sets the base down onto the small table before she runs off into the kitchen. Carefully, Sonic walks closer to the full scene. Pieces of glass and metal are scattered across the carpet, hidden around in the fluff.

“Do not get near it.” Amy comes in with a small vacuum, pushing Sonic away.

“Ames…” His hand reaches out to her, but is rejected as she turns the vacuum on.

The vacuum is loud, covering any other sound that tries to be noticed. His hand hesitates before he lowers it, his emotions feel all over  as he watches Amy clean the shattered mess they both made. So much for being a modest guest, Sonic glances to the side to see if Shadow at all had any feelings.

Thinking he would not see a slight hint of emotion, Sonic prepares to be upset at the Faker. To his own shock, Shadow looks stunted, speechless until he must have noticed Sonic’s gaze. The red eyes narrow as his open mouth shuts tightly, his pupils aimed to the kitchen. 

The noise of the vacuum stops. The quietness makes Sonic quickly jerk to Amy. “I am so sorry Amy, I was trying to avoid Shadow’s pillow and it just—”

“It is fine.” Amy smiles as she rolls up the vacuum’s cord. “Accidents happen, I should have moved the lamp anyways since you two are sleeping out here.”

Even if she does not accept his apology, Sonic still itches with guilt. It was not even his fault, Shadow was the one who tried to take the cookies. Amy walks away with the vacuum, leaving for her room. Sonic stares directly at Shadow, the other hedgehog avoiding eye contact as he sets the plate with the rest of the snacks down.

“Well…” Sonic tries to speak up his thoughts, some anger growls with his tone.

Shadow opens his eyes with a split second of almost fear before they shut as he turns away to Amy’s room. He wants to make Shadow pay for the small damage, but knowing Amy would reject it, Sonic exhales a breath he must have been holding in for unknown reasons.

“I am back, oh Shadow what is it?” Amy’s voice rings with almost a singing voice.

Glancing back, Sonic watches as Shadow keeps his head down to the floor. “What are we doing here?”

“Waiting for the storms to die down is silly!” Amy sticks out her tongue playfully as she pulls Shadow by the hand. “Come on, how about we bake more cookies?”

“Eh, sounds boring…” Shadow grumbles as he lets Amy pull him over to Sonic.

Baking does sound boring, but knowing that Amy could be pretending to be fine, Sonic decides to go along to make her happy. “I guess, if that is what you want. Never really been good at making food.”

“How about not cookies, they are too sweet.” Tossing a look at the almost empty plate, Shadow gestures to the cookies.

“We could try to make them more crunchy, if that is what you like?” Amy asks, “or is there something you want us to try?”

Sonic gasps as he raises a hand, “oh how about chili—”

“ Not Chili Dogs, something we do not have much, maybe something good for sleepovers.” Amy pulls a phone out, typing away something on her search engine.

“Something with a kick?” Shadow moves into the kitchen, looking around in the cupboards.

“We could do a pizza or a cake?” Amy asks as she browses, “hm, there are a lot of different options here.”

“Hot Pockets.”

“Huh?” Amy glances at Shadow, “Hot Pockets?”

Out of any snack, Shadow wants pretty much pizza. Sonic blocks his mouth as he hides his snickering. He could not believe what he just heard Shadow request, which it is not helping him trying to be a decent guest for Amy. His movement catches the others eyes, Shadow glares hard as he moves closer.

“You got a problem with that?” Shadow stares down Sonic, waiting for his answer.

Clearing his throat, Sonic stops his snickering. “N-no, not at all!”

Backing into the counter, Sonic raises his hands up as he tries to save himself. Shadow backs down as he looks to the side, seeing Amy watching like a vulture. Her eyes following all his movements. Letting Sonic have room, Shadow heads back to the other side of the kitchen. Thanking Amy inside his head, Sonic follows Amy as she digs through a few shelves, reading off a list online.

She stops after looking through the refrigerator. “I think I have everything, we could try to make a few Hot Pockets. You two in or no?”

Wanting to let time pass, Sonic agrees as he gives a big thumbs up with a smile. His eyes dart to Shadow, who is pondering with his usual brooding face. Staying still for a few seconds, Shadow only moves a single finger with his hands crossed before he gives a single nod.

Amy squeeles silently as she starts to pull out all kinds of ingredients and items from the cupboards. “However, we then need to do something else for at least an hour.”

“Why is that?” Sonic asks as he watches Amy pick up an electric mixer without any struggle.

“The dough needs to be in the refrigerator for about an hour. So, how about you two choose another activity for us three?” Amy asks as she moves the mixer bowl closer to herself as she starts to pour some flour into the bowl.

Shadow follows her request immediately, moving into the living room without hesitation. Sonic turns back to Amy as she drops pieces of butter into the flour. She starts to pour in milk as Sonic raises his hand up as he moves closer. “You sure you got this?”

Amy moves a spoon up, waving it at Sonic in a threatening way. “Are you questioning my baking skills?”

“N-no of course not!” Waving his hands in front of him, Sonic tries to praise Amy. “In fact I love your baked foods, I just want to make sure you are fine doing it alone.”

Turning the mixer on, Amy shakes her head as she chuckles. “Listen, you two will help out, once the hour is over. Now get going before Shadow makes you suffer with his choice.”

Knowing Amy is not wrong about how Shadow will choose, Sonic leaves Amy to the mixer. Entering the living room, Sonic spots Shadow setting up Amy’s game council. Great, it looks like he is too late. Shadow is inserting a disk. Unknown to Sonic of what exactly he is signing up for, he takes a second remote. 

Turning around, Shadow blinks blankly as he stares at Sonic. Both remain still as they stare through the loud mixing sounds from the kitchen. Backing into the couch, Sonic sits down slowly as he shifts his remote to his chest. The movement seems to make Shadow breath again from his frozen state, taking the television remote from the shelf.

The mixer turns off, Amy’s soft humming is silently flowing through the air as she is opening the refrigerator. Sonic glances towards the kitchen, wondering how much longer until she can save him from being alone with Shadow. Shuffling his feet across the carpet, Sonic anxiously glances at his rival.

Plopping across from Sonic, Shadow takes the other end of the couch. Shoving his staring eyes away, Sonic directs his face at the television. He hopes Shadow did not notice his awkward stare, but with how the couch shifted slightly, Sonic guesses he had noticed. The sudden adjustment of how he is sitting, Shadow obviously had noticed his gaze. 

“Guess who is ready!” Amy leaps in his way of the television.

Seeing the pink hedgehog makes Sonic almost cheer. Thank Chaos that he has Amy to help with this super uncomfortable silence from Shadow. The only problem with it is that Amy is one that wants to solve problems or feelings that are untouched. Everything about this whole sleepover is going to end badly.

“Glad you made it!” Sonic smiles as he uses this moment to see if Shadow is staring at him.

His small glance made his speculations corrected. The almost glaring red makes Sonic sink into the cushions. Thankfully, Amy sits directly in the middle, blocking most of the knife stares as Shadow has to now back down unless he wants Amy to notice. 

“So, what are we playing?” Amy takes a controller as the screen loads up. “Oh this will be fun!”

Seeing a racing game, Sonic smirks as he adjusts his body. His favorite type of games are racing ones, which he trains a lot with. However, knowing Shadow chose this game could only mean one thing.

He was going all in against Sonic himself.

Chapter Text

Head to head, it is a tied game between Sonic and Shadow. Playing the game for what felt like forever, it has now come down to a tiebreaker between the two of them. The two of them not coming to any conclusion as always Shadow was so stubborn to take defeat. However, now Sonic readies himself for another round, ready to determine again who is victorious. Sonic clutches his remote so tight that his knuckles hurt. Even if he was good at this game, he now is losing.

The last two games, Sonic pushed them onward with the races. Losing twice in a row to Shadow only because the Faker could not take the big losing streak from earlier. Being as stubborn as he is, which only makes Sonic willing to accept the challenge, wanting to keep his champion title. Which leads to the tie for first place now.

As he waits for the others to select their options, Sonic looks over Amy, she is too busy staring at the television, questioning what to use next. Looking over her, Sonic gives a smug look to Shadow as he prepares to win. “Are you ready for defeat now? I was winning until you pleaded to play more.”

“I did not plead.” Shadow groans as he shakes his head, “get ready to lose hedgehog, I am going to win this.”

“M-maybe I will win this round?” Amy chuckles as she sits up to block their view of each other. 

Through all their rounds, Amy has always been a runner up. At the start, Amy has won a few rounds until Shadow and Sonic got used to the game controls. Shadow and him have always avoided Amy most of the time, as they kept going after each other. Sonic knows Shadow is his main competitor unlike Amy, who can take a loss and still be cheerful.

Through their rounds, Shadow’s main objective is obviously making sure Sonic does not take first place. All Shadow has been doing has been slowing Sonic down, but he wants to win and take first place with racing in anything. It all leads to this next race to break their little tie they have.

From the coffee table, Amy’s pink phone vibrates as a quiet alarm goes off. Shadow flinches at the other side of the couch. He could not believe the sight of The Ultimate Life Form being startled by a sudden noise. Sonic holds back his laughter as he moves to block his smile that he fails to contain as Shadow jerks his head to stare at him.

“Oh be right back, I am going to check the dough!” Amy rushes out of the living room.

Shadow’s red eyes leave Sonic, following Amy instead with a more neutral gaze. Taking the chance to recover, Sonic clears his throat as he stops his own snickers. His hand falls away from his face as he waits for the results of Amy’s findings.

“It looks like it is ready!” Her voice calls to them, Shadow immediately stands up as he walks over to the kitchen. 

Getting up, Sonic sets his remote down onto the table. Standing straight, he starts to move towards the kitchen. The chill from the refrigerator blows around as he sees Amy taking the dough out.

“Sonic, may you please turn the council off?” Amy smiles up to him as she shuts the refrigerator door. “I am going to roll this dough out as we wait.”

“But what about the tie breaker?” Sonic gasps as he tries to defend the council, “we need to keep going after this!”

“Sonic, it is just a game.” Pulling out a rolling pin, Amy glances at Sonic with raised eyebrows.

“J-just a game?” Stuttering playfully, Sonic teases a little as he knows he will need to shut it down.

“I will do it.” Bumping Sonic as he walks by, Shadow rolls his eyes as he turns the system off.

Dramatically, Sonic collapses onto his knees as he reaches towards the white ceiling above. “No!!”

It worked, his pose and theater skills worked its charm. From above him, Amy giggles uncontrollably, her small giggles turn into joyful laughter. It rings gently to his ears, his insides feel warmer as he prepares to continue with his acting as he waits for his part to prepare the Hot Pockets. 

As he pulls a fist to his chest, Sonic reaches his other hand out even more. Closing his eyes, he shakes his head slowly as he tries to listen for another chuckle from Ames. With his eyes shut, Sonic slowly takes a long loud breath.

“Oh shut up!” His hand is crushed by a powerful force pulling him up making his eyes flash open to see Shadow having taken his hand.

Pulling Sonic up from the floor, Shadow drags him closer to him as he makes Sonic stand up in front of him. His hand is still holding onto Sonic’s own hand. The entire act bombed, now his rival is here awkwardly holding his hand.

Enormous laughter is heard shaking the floor. The feeling of bewilderment crawls inside, dusting the warm feeling away. Sonic and Shadow both look at Amy, who is laughing hard enough that she is crying. Her hand loses grip to the rolling pin, dropping it hard onto the floor. The pin slams the ground hard, probably waking up whoever has the apartment below them.

“You two—” Amy laughs harder as she tries to speak, wiping away the tears. “Are you trying out being a couple here?!”

What!?

His fur must have changed color into a pale blue by his shock. Sonic feels his mouth drop as he struggles to breathe. His mind questions her statement joke, confused as to why she blurted out the joke in the first place… The warmth from his hand fades away, making Sonic turn to see Shadow’s hand left his own.

He was holding his hand and he pushed Sonic up right in front of him like some romantic couple! Sonic gags as he gets ideas of what exactly Amy saw as Shadow forcefully pulled Sonic from the floor. His body feels hot in embarrassment, yet instead he starts to chuckle along with Amy. They all really must be tired if they are this giggly now, things may get worse as the night progresses and Sonic feels okay with it.

Shadow on the other side, well he does not look too happy. The Ultimate Life Form looks not so ultimate now as his eyes are wide with shock and his frown is enormous with his teeth clenching hard. His reaction gets to Sonic, he can not hold in his laughter anymore. The entire situation has gone successful in making Amy in a more cheery mood for the night. The only problem is now to make sure Shadow does not mess it up at any point.

“First off Rose, I work alone.” Shadow growls out, trying to defend himself. “Secondly, if I ever did get a partner, it would never be with him!”

“Oh come on, no one can resi—”

“If you finish that sentence, I swear to Chaos that I will fucking kill you on the spot!” Eyes glowing, Shadow sparks with his annoyance loudly.

Pushing between the two, Amy finishes her chuckles as she picks up the rolling pin. “I was only kidding guys. Sorry Shadow, please calm down as it was only a joke and I did not mean to offend you in any way.”

Smirking, Sonic nods to Shadow. “I will not finish it, but only because I do not want you to destroy Amy’s home here and other innocent lives.”

That worked, Shadow calms down as his eyes seem to dim back to his usual dark tone as his casual frown appears. Sonic turns away, seeing the dough all rolled out neatly on the board. Turning to the others, Sonic watches as Amy smiles brightly at Shadow as she gestures for him to follow her to the counter. 

To his own astonishment, Sonic sees the Faker lighten up with a small smile. He could not believe the sight of Shadow taken back by Amy’s smile. The motion makes something inside him bubble and not in a good way. 

Pushing the two away from each other, Sonic squeezes between them. “So Ames, what is the next step of making these Hot Pockets?”

“Well,” Amy lifts a pizza cutter up, “I need to cut this dough into at least three even stripes. I think we could try to aim for at least six so we all can have more than one.”

Snatching the cutter, Shadow slices the raw dough into nine lines. Each section is close to the same size. Sonic gasps as he studies each slice, seeing how well Shadow was with the sharp knife. His eyes draw away as Amy applauds Shadow with a smile as she takes the pizza cutter.

“Woah Shadow, this will work. I did not know you were good with dough.” Amy praises him with her sweet voice.

Kicking the floor silently, Sonic sinks his head a little as he feels himself sulk. He could not believe what Shadow had just done, yet knowing his own rival he would come with some dumb excuse like—

“I am just good with knives…”

Exactly!
Sonic huffs quietly as he knew what Shadow was good with. Pushing forward, Sonic moves closer to prepare the filings. From the corner of his eye, he watches Shadow smirk wider as he stays beside Amy as she prepares the fillings out on the counter. Seeing the smirk only makes Sonic puff his cheeks in annoyance at how interested Shadow is with this activity that he needs to try to be interested even more.

“S-so Amy, what do we do with these?” Trying to stay cool, Sonic asks as he picks up a bag of pepperoni.

Setting down a bag of cheese, Amy gestures to the nine pieces of cut dough. “Each of us should fill three to our own liking. Keep it to only three boys…”

Sonic snatches the cheese away, “why would we take more, come on it is not like I want to fill one of Shadow’s with something he despises!”

His teasing makes his Faker glare from the other side of Amy. Gaining the reaction, Sonic silently laughs as he starts to fill his three with cheese and mild spice items, mostly aiming for pepperoni and selecting from the different cheeses and random seasonings that Amy had set down. He is no professional cook, he just chucks in whatever sounds good together and will not be horribly spicy unlike the ingredients he watches Shadow carefully put together in his own dough sections.

As he progresses through his three pieces, Sonic glances at Amy along with his stares at Shadow’s choices. Most of Amy’s fillings are basic like his besides the mushrooms and other veggies she has put into hers. His eyes drag over to Shadow’s hands, which is adding different types of meats into it. Grossed out a little, Sonic turns back to his own snack. Tossing a few more pepperoni onto his, Sonic finishes quickly before the other two within minutes. Raising his hands away, Sonic stares at his soon to be snack.

“So, what next?” He groans in boredom as he already wants to do something else.

“Give us a minute, some of us actually care about what we eat.” Amy sarcastically jokes with a smile at the end, her own chuckles making Sonic relax a bit.

He waits besides them, staring at their filling choices as they add a few more. The same ingredients are pushed into their dough over and over. Amy’s fillings are not full, more roomy with mostly cheese inside it. Sonic glances towards Shadow as he is shoving a lot more meat and some sauces into his, taking up most of the room. He could almost call it with all the choices Shadow has inside his Hot Pockets, same with Amy. Both of them just match their personalities as his is more basic with some seasonings, cheese, and pepperoni compared to Amy’s with the veggies and Shadow with the spices. 

“Finished!” Raising her hands, Amy beams at her work.

Her voice catches Shadow’s and Sonic’s attention. He watches as Shadow puts a seasoning cap on, his hands gesture to his own pieces. There they all are, finished and ready to be baked. He feels his stomach growl silently, thankfully only he can hear the hunger as he stares at the unbaked food.

“Okay you two, watch closely so you can do it on your own…” Leaning to her own dough, Amy grabs carefully the two edges of one side.

He thought they would be done now. His smile falters for a few seconds until he realizes he should probably pay attention. Sonic moves closer, he tries to pay attention as he sees her hands carefully making sure the dough does not tear. His movement must have gotten Shadow’s attention, as the Faker also moves in as he is unamused with what Amy is doing with the dough.

“Now we do this. . .” Amy talks to herself as she tries to follow along with the recipe. 

With a blink, Amy pinches the sides together. The filling is all locked inside as she pushes down the sides to close any holes. Seeing how she succeeded on her first Hot Pocket makes Sonic glance at his own. Knowing he now has to try whatever Amy did to his own three snacks. The whole process Amy zipped by, now already going onward with her other two.

Why could they not just have baked the food. Sonic feels his stomach ache slightly as he yearns for food. The process Amy had done made no sense and it was not because he did not understand it… Sonic sighs as he pokes the dough, unsure of what to do next. He knows he did not understand how Amy did it so carefully and quickly at the same time. He can not risk the snack’s dough, he is not gentle to food.

His hesitation must have caught her attention. Amy shuts her second one, glancing at Sonic with a glimmer of wonder. “What are you waiting for?”

“U-um, nothing!” Sonic flaps his hands in front of him, “so like we just shut it together. Not wanting any dough to break because then we have to redo it all?”

“Oh Sonic, here watch me do one of yours.” Amy forces Sonic to move over as she pushes herself towards his dough. “Look here, I need these to reach the other side. So all you do is grab firmly with these two sides.”

Amy takes the edges on one side, glancing at Sonic to make sure he is watching before she goes back to work. However, before she can continue, Amy calls out to Shadow. “Hey, you better come over and watch if you're not starting your own mister.”

Sonic notices how Shadow’s eyes look more round. Smirking, Sonic waves for him to come over. His own actions may have made it worse, Shadow’s eyes darken as his whole body almost deepens into a darker state. His own smile falls as he watches Shadow move over, only staring dead into Sonic’s eyes. Red glares send Sonic’s entire body to feel weaker, slowly Sonic looks back at Amy as she continues onward with her demonstration.

“Now I have these two edges here…” Amy glances between them both as she continues. “Now here, you raise them to hug the others.” She hums as she pinches them together.

It now clicks in, Sonic nods his head as he leans back. All he needs to do is wrap the dough together, closing all the sides at his own pace. He watches as Amy pinches the sides together. Her hands clutching the dough all around, sealing all holes leftover.

“Done, you two understand now?” Amy asks with a smile.

Raising his hand, Sonic shows a thumbs up with a grasp of what to do with the dough. His eyes follow Amy's as they both wait for Shadow’s response. All they obtain is a shrug from the dark hedgehog. It is typical for him to not give a straight answer, so Sonic lets it go as he focuses on his future snacks. 

All he needs to do is make sure these will save his empty stomach. He usually has a night snack and with how late they are staying up, it should be approaching soon. Without food in his stomach, sleep would be a no go all night and his mood would definitely change. Not only because of hunger, but also it takes a lot of work to not blow up around Shadow. Food makes things run smoother for him, so he better have his Hot Pocket perfected to satisfy his annoyance with his rival.

“Well, if you two need help, I think I can try to explain the instructions again with a more thural explanation...” Amy gestures to her phone with the recipe. “Be warned, the next step is adding the extra seasonings on top if you want more taste.”

More up next, Sonic feels his inside gurgle silently. He needs to push through, he knows he could push through with silence or he could sneak a few pepperonis into his mouth now. The idea of food makes Sonic scan his surroundings, seeing that Shadow had got the concept as he is already finishing his second dough with the edges. His eyes spot Shadow’s own stare, which makes him peek away to his own three pieces.

He could sneak a small piece of pepperoni into his mouth. With a swish of his arm, he snatches the small red circle from his last Hot Pocket. Without looking at the others, he swings the piece into his mouth. The gurgling stops, he chews once before he swallows the small kick of spice that barely hits him.

“Did you just smuggle a single piece of pepperoni into your mouth?” Amy asks, puzzlement rings with her wavering voice that could be from tiredness or confusion.

“Um… Well I thought… Never mind, yes I was hungry because Shadow never let me have any of those cookies…” Sonic admits, feeling a little embarrassed. “It was just a piece of pepperoni, can a hedgehog eat?”

Now looking at the others, Sonic sees how Amy looks almost as if she is choking. Instead, she giggles as she smiles. “Sonic I am not mad at you. I just think it is funny, sorry if this is not fast enough for you. I know speed is your thing, so we can try to pick up the speed here.”

“O-oh I do not mind!!” Stuttering, Sonic waves his hands, “I just needed a nibble.”

“You had a cookie, do not use me as your excuse hedgehog…” Shadow hisses with annoyance.

“Boys, it really does not matter.” Amy groans as her smile falters, “come on, finish up your last one Sonic. Especially if you want to eat them sooner.”

Knowing Amy is right, Sonic grabs the edges of his last dough. Sonic pinches them together as he speeds his movement all around. Amy watches from the corner of his vision. Pausing, Sonic stares at his final Hot Pocket with some worry. Not understanding why she is watching him finish his own when Shadow also has one more he is fixing as well.

“D-did I do it wrong?” He asks Amy.

Shaking her head, Amy replies. “No, what do you think you did?”

“Can we get this over with yet?” Shadow growls from behind, “we all are done now and Sonic just wants to slow us down.”

“Hey!”

“Alright, we can continue.” Amy moves a bowl with milk over, “here take these brushes if you want some seasoning on top. Do not overdo the extras here.”

“Roger that captain.” Sonic takes the bush, petting his three pieces gently.

The three of them add their seasonings of choice, Sonic mainly took parsley. Shadow had some different spices that Sonic could not deal with. Amy on the other had almost done the same as Sonic himself, only she added a few extra things that Sonic did not understand. He was not a cook, he left most of the meals to Amy or Vanilla, few times he even had Tails cook for him.

Now here he is, cooking with one of his closest friends and his biggest rival. It has at least been an hour and nothing has been destroyed besides the lamp. A tingle sparks inside, his smile falls as he remembers his mistake. No it was not his fault, he would make sure Shadow paid up on the damage he caused. However, now he is thinking about it… 

Sonic looks down at his final Pocket to brush up. If it weren’t for Shadow’s anger, they would not be learning together how to cook Hot Pockets. The thought makes Sonic’s smile rise up, hugging his cheeks as he finishes his last snack preparation. They must be having some sort of payback right now, as he knows how much Shadow despises bonding time compared to everyone else.

“Good work team, we are almost done here!” Amy cheers out as she puts the Hot Pockets onto the same tray.

Sonic perks up, it is exactly what he wanted to hear now. If things keep going like this, they could easily get through the night without breaking the apartment building down.

Chapter Text

They did it. He could not believe how amazing it was. Sonic relishes the food they had worked so hard to create. The warm crust on top was heated at the right temperature to take a bite without burning his mouth. The taste is phenomenal, his insides seem to be partying as he prepares his second Hot Pocket.

“How can you eat them?!” Amy voices her concern as she gives her own pocket a blow. 

From the couch, Shadow shrugs as he bits into his snack for the first time. Pausing his own enjoyment of the food, Sonic watches as the Faker chews his recommended food choice. The few seconds of his eyes staring, he could not believe the sight he saw. 

Shadow’s eyes light up. He actually gives an expression of joy that Sonic must have not seen before. The sudden change however does not last. The dark eyes land after a blink to stare into Sonic’s own. The red shine changes from a sparkle to smoke as his eyes narrow back to his expressionless face. The sight makes Sonic jerk away, spotting the different magazines piled together on the coffee table.

“What are you looking at?” Shadow asks, sounding ready for a fight.

“N-nothing!” Sonic quickly throws the rest of his second Hot Pocket into his mouth.

The magazines seem to be about fashion. The topic is very typical for Amy, Sonic almost leaves them alone until he spots one that is buried under the other papers. The top of the magazine sticks out from the bottom of the pile, it is way different from the fashion topics of the others. Reaching across the table, Sonic pushes the few magazines off each other. His hand pushes the other papers slowly off each other. His hand slapping against the pieces of paper, almost reaching the bottom to figure out if his vision is playing tricks on him this late in the night.

A white glove slams down in front of him.

“What are you doing now, hedgehog?” Shadow’s dark voice booms above him as his hand grips tightly to the magazine it landed on.

Sonic moves his hand up, turning his face directly above him. Shadow’s eyes glare into his own soul as he waits for a response from Sonic. Not knowing exactly how to answer the dark hedgehog, Sonic gives a fake grin as his eyes peek back to the magazine on the table. Wanting to see if Amy knows what is happening, Sonic turns in a flash to look over at the pink hedgehog, who is fidgeting with her own snack as if she is on edge. 

Everything is off about her. Amy’s eyes are looking as if she has dread of what is going on, which does not add up. All Sonic can think of is maybe she is scared that they will fight and break something again. He could see that fear, yet her stare is different then her concern about fights. The wide eyes, fidgeting body, her fur spiky instead of her usual brushed down smooth fur. Something is obviously making her distressed. 

“C-can’t a hedgehog stretch?” Trying to lighten the mood, Sonic jokes as he smirks back at Shadow.

If only his answer could please Shadow.

“Wait a minute…” His hand releases the magazine cover he crumbled. 

Sonic leans back, watching as Shadow’s annoyance has dimmed down slightly to his own surprise. Yet his anger looks as if it is bubbling like lava, ready to boil over as his hand reaches out to the very magazine Sonic noticed on the table. 

Quickly, Shadow lifts the magazine up. Amy’s face freezes, her smile opening with her jaw dropping in panic. Sonic raises an eyebrow as he stares at the cover of the magazine. Not seeing the problem as to why it is such a big deal with Amy as they are looking at it.

Shadow stares at the back, turning it around to the front instead. Sonic blinks a few times in confusion before he looks back to Amy. He swore she looked as if the world was at war with Eggman, however now she is giving a small confused smile. “You interested in the medical field Shadow?”

He knew something was up. Knowing Amy, with her research, she must have taken notes in this magazine. Sonic tries to squeeze his way closer to Shadow. The dark hedgehog must have noticed him, as he moves the magazine closer as he flips through the pages. Not saying a word as his eyes scan each page he flips through repeatedly. 

“Are you Amy?” Sonic decides to ask the source instead.

Amy's face lightens up a little, she fidgets with her skirt. “A little, I mean I have been looking into certain parts of the field.” She raises her hands as she explains, “not as a job, but like to know the skills for accidents or situations that come up?”

Her smile is weak, she has a good reason that Sonic thinks is fine to learn about medical procedures and tips. The category is not his favorite, but if it is something his friends want to learn he would support them through it all. Tails did mention in the past about learning and seeing how to help with wound injuries or simple things like pills or physical health. Sonic and him tried to find what he needed to learn more, but once they both found out all the different ways it made things harder to understand. 

Sonic smiles as he remembers Tails making machines to read through the details and give him the synopsis about the information it has gathered. His genius brother did learn a bit from that experience, yet he hated the sight of blood. Years ago, Tails would vomit or pass out at major blood injuries. So it all counters everything he had learned. Most times Sonic still needed to help Tails when he was bleeding badly.

However, things have changed. 

His smile falls a little, yet he could not dwell on how Tails has gotten over his fear of blood. Not wanting to think about the reasons as to why his brother got over the sight of blood, Sonic tries to leave the small memories as he looks back at Ames. She looks pale as her eyes are now at Shadow. “H-here, I can clean the table!”

Her hands drag all the magazines into her grip. She pushes forward towards Shadow, however her smile now jiggles as she bites her bottom lip.

Why is the confident Amy Rose so nervous? Sonic moves in closely as he tries to overlook Shadow’s shoulder. His eyes catch what Shadow is staring at now. A page full of notes, the writing overlapping itself summarizing an article. Different sticky notes scattered across the pages, different notes on different subjects. Moving to his tippy toes, Sonic sees the title of the article “ Psychology Behind Friendship. . . ” The rest of the title is blocked off by Shadow’s head.

Now why would Amy need to take plenty of notes on friendship, this is a mystery that Sonic contemplates. He gazes back to Amy, who is now eating her Hot Pocket. Through her face, she seems hesitant and tense, yet her body seems to be calm as she finally starts to eat her snack. The actions Amy has makes something inside Sonic tick. It is not a good tick, more of a concern one that would bug him if unresolved. 

Knowing how Amy is refusing to take action, Sonic guesses it may be nothing. However, as Shadow seems to be fully invested with whatever the article is about, Sonic knows he must get his hands on it.

Sonic pushes closer to his Faker, “hey let me see…”

Shadow shoots his red eyes at Sonic, giving a stare that he could understand. It is as if he said he would kill Sonic on the spot if he took a step closer. Which of course Sonic backed up, yet that would not make him stop trying to pursue the magazine.

“Let me see!” Sonic dives Shadow, the two fall onto the floor.

With the paper out of Shadow’s grasp, Sonic sees the notes in front of his face. Squinting, Sonic pulls it closer to read the handwritten notes. Each sticky note is all about different subjects and all written slightly different, which is a little worrisome. His cheerful mood dims as he scans around, seeing different takes on almost every sentence by the looks of it.

It is all notes on how to help bring people closer.

One note that sticks out more, Sonic sees more wobbly writing in a corner. It had his name at the beginning, Amy wrote about how friendly he was to most people. How could he be friendly to most ? Sonic swears he is friendly to everyone, well besides total pricks like Egghead. He of course would sometimes get along if they needed to work together, but that is besides the point.

His thoughts are silent as Shadow steps in front of the light. Sonic peeks up from the carpet he still is laying on. Following Shadow’s glare, leading to the magazine in Sonic’s hands. 

“Are you happy now?” Shadow snarls as he leans down with his hand reaching towards the magazine.

Sitting up quickly, Sonic pulls the paper close to his stomach. Yet Shadow takes the Hot Pocket laying next to the magazine. It must have fallen during his dive, Sonic stares as Shadow growls with the ruined snack.

Harshly, Shadow kicks Sonic as he leaves towards the kitchen. Not caring, Sonic continues onward with the note, trying to read exactly what Amy thought about his behavior. Searching the two pages, Sonic tries to find the note with his name wobbly written. His eyes pass over different notes about different emotional connections and Amy’s thoughts about the friend dynamics between others.

There, he finds the note again. However, his grin falls as he sees another name written in the sentence. He frowns hard as he skims over the notes about how they can get along. It had to be a joke, he knew it was all a joke. Amy has fancy writing, so she must have written this section to make herself laugh.

“Amy. . .” The low voice from Shadow calls from the kitchen.

His ears perk at how upset Shadow sounds. Not his usual angry or annoyed upset, it sounded more bothered. Some type of tone that had almost a sad wave with it. The voice felt wrong to Sonic, it broke his eyes away from the magazine.

Sonic looks up to see the pink hedgehog now done with her first warm snack. She is standing on the carpet just outside the kitchen. Her green eyes look like they lost their spark of joy as they are hanging down.

“Is this all a set up to get us buddies with each other?” Shadow’s voice raises, there his anger speaks louder than any other emotion.

“What kind of dumb question is that?!” Sonic leaps off the fuzzy ground, the paper in his grip as he defends Amy. “How could she know that we were both here tonight in need of a place to stay?!”

Seeing the irritation waver in Shadow’s eyes fall to the floor, trying to piece together his thinking. “Maybe she just sees the opportunity to force us to do activities together…”

The logic that Shadow concluded could be true. Sonic directs his attention to the magazine again. The note did seem to be something she was planning, for any occasion they were together. Wanting it to not be true, Sonic turns his head towards the kitchen.

There, Shadow is waiting for Amy to respond. Sonic joins in as he turns to Amy. The pink hedgehog is still standing in the doorway, her smile completely gone as her entire body looks stiff. Sonic could not see her face, he only could hear quiet laughter.

Oh no…

“Looks like you got me!” Amy flings her hands up into the air, her voice sounds sarcastic and bitter with her eyes snapping at them both. “I never thought you would see through it all. Every time you two are in the same room, oh I just have to force you to be friends!”

“Amy, h-hey we were just rambling nonsense . . .” Sonic slowly takes a step closer.

“Enough!”

Flinching, Sonic freezes his feet. Amy now is breathing heavily, her fist tightening as she stares deadly at them both. Besides Amy’s heavy breaths that are slowing down, a low rumble can be heard from outside. Sonic does not glance to the window, he stays put as he raises his hand out slowly towards Amy.

Closing her eyes, Amy exhales sharply. “You two never listen…” releasing her fists, Amy shakes her head as she continues, “always jumping to conclusions and ready to get into action. I know you do not want to be here, so just go!”

Her voice cracks as she storms away to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. The loud slam shakes the room, the few pictures by her door slide crooked. Sonic could not believe what happened. They made Amy so annoyed that she ran off. Ames is someone who never likes to store emotions away. They have taken things too far that they hurt Amy this badly, Sonic needs to fix this. Every time he has been trying to help the sleepover, he makes the night worse and worse as it goes. This may have happened as how late it is, but that does not defend his actions about her private notes.

Sonic feels his insides turn, the snacks he had beating up his stomach with guilt. Even if it does seem weird that Amy took notes about him and his rival, he should at least apologize. Gazing away from the shut door, Sonic stares at the window as he tries to think in the silence. The apartment is so quiet that the clock at the side is the loudest sound mixed with the faint rain tapping on the window.

“Maybe I will…” Shadow breaks the quietness with his grumble as he walks into the living room.

“What?” Sonic glares as Shadow walks by without batting an eye.

Deciding to leave Shadow alone for now, Sonic tries to gather the trigger that made Amy explode. She spoke out of anger after they mentioned she planned it out, so Sonic thinks now she did not plan this all out. Course they made it worse and pushed her a little, where she then spoke against them. Something about conclusions, oh making them up without context. Sonic knows well that he does usually rush into things, unless he had Tails, he would always know how to make Sonic listen. Yet, at times even with Tails it still led to bad judgements.

Gathering more information has to be the only way. Sonic raises the magazine closer, his eyes examining the page again. Besides the wobbly note, he sees all the other notes and skims them over. Some sticky notes explain about talking about things that bug each other. Another note had written down explaining how some people would never become true friends. One even closer to the note about him explained about common ground between others.

Each note bored Sonic. He groans silently in frustration at the dull content, but there he notices another different style note. It was more normally written, not cursive, as it explained about the notes with people’s names. 

“Remember, every note with names is for friends that I know relate to using the other notes around the one with their name. To keep the peace around anyone I spend time with!”

All around his note, it explained about relations that needed someone to help keep peace. Having at least one common ground. They needed a similar goal to stay healthy and well for others. They needed at least another friend of their own to talk openly about things. They were all notes for them to be safer around others, not about becoming friends.

“Oh Amy…” Sonic sighs as he clutches the magazine closer.

He needs to fix it. Even if he badly wants to leave, Amy offered a place to stay and he wrecked the time they had together. And even if he wanted to leave, he would not. Sonic listens in as he hears a low rumble from the storms outside. If it takes all night, he is going to dedicate all his bed time to make it up for Amy.

Chapter Text

“Damn, where did she put that Chaos Emerald?!” 

“Dude, really?” Sonic whispers under his own breath.

Having no clue of time, Sonic sighs as he taps his chin. Sitting on the couch and thinking of what to do seemed logical to him, yet for however long he has been sitting here, Sonic has gained nothing. The only thing he has noticed is Shadow looking through everything for the emerald he brought in. 

Maybe it was a good thing Amy took it. Now Shadow would have to be forced under a roof instead of vanishing into the raining outdoors. Even if he says he can not get sick, Shadow could still get cold and his quills could get messy. All his searching has probably distracted Sonic from coming up with a plan, but it at least was amusing to see Shadow get so frustrated so easily at something silly like this.

“What are you smiling at?!” Shadow snarls, stomping up to Sonic with his eyes ready to burn him up.

Rolling his eyes, Sonic forces his smile to fall. “Nothing, relax.” Raising his hands up, Sonic pushes his back against the couch. “I am sure you can leave, Amy is wise to not toss the emerald someplace dumb.”

Shadow only growls before he moves towards the bathroom. Glancing to the shut door, whatever joy is left departs from him. With a frown now, Sonic listens as the silence starts to fill with silent voices from the neighbors around the room. All the voices are joyous, cheering, and even singing. It did not help the boiling feeling of guilt scorching Sonic’s insides. 

Knowing Amy has always helped others out, this should be fine. Sonic could not put his finger on it as to why Shadow and him made a big deal out of it in the first place. It is odd that Amy got so upset, yet maybe she is tired or stressed out by having them here. With Amy Rose, it could almost be anything, even if she had a bad day small pushes make her explode or she has a meltdown like she did a little bit ago.

“Stupid girl…” The mumbles of Shadow fly through the air.

The comment hits Sonic. Something inside of him snaps. Standing off the couch, Sonic’s teeth grind as he takes two stomps before he sees Shadow coming back into the room. Shadow took the magazine from him, it was also his fault for upsetting Ames. Now seeing the Faker having no guilt and raiding through Amy’s apartment just feels so wrong! Sonic follows slowly, Shadow moving closer to the door.

“Amy?” Shadow calls to her sternly, “where did you put the emerald?”

Pausing his feet, Sonic listens carefully for any response. The only response they got came from outside, the rumble of thunder shakes the windows. No voice from Amy, not a single sound comes from her room. Something inside Sonic shivers, making his worry leap along with his anger at the Faker.

“Shadow, step away from the door…”

His sigh could be heard loudly, Sonic glares harder as he waits for Shadow to respond. Eyes flashing directly into his own, Shadow blinks blankly before his wide eyes sharpen up into a narrowing stare.

“Why should I?” Turning his head around, Shadow crosses his hands. “She took my damn Chaos Emerald.”

How could he just shove aside the fact that they broke Amy’s trust here? Sonic scorches in his thoughts, his own eyes narrowing at the Faker in front of him. All the notes that Amy had written, they all seem false as the facts are all proven here. Sonic has nothing similar to this imposter with his uncaring attitude and one track mind.

“You know why…” Sonic growls, which almost startles himself at the low sound from his voice.

“What, you want me to forget that this is all just a set up?!” Shadow shouts, “no Rose has gone too far here, she was using me for an endless path. She needs to learn that I only work alone…”

Throwing the lone wolf garbage. Sonic has heard these excuses too many times from his Faker, it has become invalid with his comebacks. Rubbing his hand down on his eyes, Sonic grumbles out loud. “Yeah right.”

He may have been too sarcastic there, but it was worth it. Shadow scowls as his fist immediately clench shut, taking two steps closer to Sonic with his anger. “I did not hear you.”

Obviously he did hear him with how upset he became, but Sonic plays along with the cranky hedgehog. “ Sure you are a loner.” 

Adding to his sarcasm, Sonic rolls his eyes as he flashes quotation marks with his hands. The loner bits down, his teeth clenching and scrapping loudly with annoyance. With a smirk, Sonic gives a fake stretch to tease Shadow. Giving false ideas that he could care less what Shadow is saying right now, it always works.

“Why you little—” Shadow looks as if he is fuming, he raises his fists as he's ready to fight.

“Woah hey, Shads!” Raising his hands, Sonic now tries to calm Shadow down. “I am just suggesting to your teammates, Rouge and Omega. You are close with them, right?”

It seems to strike, Sonic breathes out the air he did not know he was struggling to breath out. Shadow lowers his hands along with his face as he turns away. Probably trying to come up with some defense or remark to come back to his angry ways.

“They have nothing to do with—”

“ They have everything!” Sonic chuckles out, “Look, they are your team if you say they are not friends. Sure you may like to be alone, but you still go back to them!”

“Shut up, you know nothing about that!” The snarl from Shadow shakes Sonic’s bones. “They are just associates.”

“Who do you spend your time with weekly?” Teasing, Sonic smirks.

There is no way Shadow can climb out. Sonic has tagged him again, like how things usually play out. His Faker rolls his eyes, his mind must have come to a dead end. Already Shads starts to sulk away as his hands cross and his body relaxes.

“Whatever, I do not have time to waste on you…” The only response from Shadow is weak.

“But you also have no time to look for this stupid emerald!” Sonic shouts unexpectedly that he himself also jumps at his own comment.

The shouting catches Shadow’s attention fully. Turning around, his red eyes stare in awe at Sonic, astonishment of the sudden change. “W-what?”

Pausing, Sonic feels his insides hurt as he sees the door behind Shadow still shut. Fighting with his Faker will lead nowhere, he knows Amy just wrote those notes for references to use on moments like this. She did that by asking what snacks they wanted, taking in any suggestions, trying to keep them from seriously fighting. It was all there. Reflecting at it all, Sonic frowns at how he and Shadow still messed it all up. It all started because of their dumb bickering, such as staring at each other for too long.

“I have had it, Shads…”

“What do you mean?” Shadow asks with a softer tone.

Sonic gestures to the shut door ahead of him. “We need to get over this whole night here…”

“I will pass on that.” Scoffing, Shadow rolls his eyes.

“It is going to be raining all night long and Amy gave us a place to stay.” Sonic shakes his head as he tries to collect his emotions. “All we did was ruin her night and destroy one of her lamps. We also ate some of her food and we have not done a single thing for Amy here.”

Looking away from the door, Sonic glances briefly to check if Shadow is even listening. Thinking that Shadow is probably ignoring him or not caring by the total lack of a response. Instead of seeing a brooding Shadow, he sees the red eyes staring openly and willingly. The sudden eye contact makes him jump back to the door, the shut door.

“Anyway, I was thinking we should at least try to make Amy happy before we leave?” Sonic shrugs as he works his way through his scrambled thoughts. “L-like we could just listen to her tell us what we did wrong, or maybe let her beat us up for a few minutes? Please just promise me you will not go in and demand to know where the emerald is being held.”

Murmuring, Shadow answers faintly. “ Goddammit, I guess I have no other choice…” Shadow’s voice raises, even though Sonic heard his silent voice. “Fine, if it makes you stop bugging me.”

Smirking, Sonic knows Shadow is also worried. With how carefully he put items back as he searched for the emerald. Those little things make Shadow still vulnerable at showing his true self under all the broody, moody, hedgehog. The main tick that Sonic noticed has been how his usual burning eyes have dimmed down, like a fire extinguished inside them and all that remains is the glowing charcoal. His gentle nature has slightly kicked in, even now as he moves along with Sonic towards the shut door. This apology has to be from not just Shads, but Sonic as well. Swallowing silently, Sonic tries to figure out a good way to ease his way for Amy to calm down. They needed to fix this mess, even if it may seem a little silly to Shadow, Sonic knows they had hit Amy somewhere close to her heart.

“Amy?” Calling to the door, Shadow tries to sound calm. “ Rose, are you alright in there?”

Standing in front of the door, Sonic glances at Shadow as they wait for any response. Fidgeting with his fingers, Sonic raises his hand as he knocks carefully on the door. Making a quiet thump noise once on the door, which he even knew Amy would not hear. 

“What was that?!” Shadow snaps at Sonic, “here let me—”

Before he even finishes, Shadow slams twice on the door with both his hands. The loud slamming fists must have been heard, as they made Sonic leap up with a startle at the sudden fists that shook the door.

He could easily make a remark here, teasing Shadow for actually being worried here about Amy. It could be an easy statement to get out, yet he sinks into himself as he knows the exact remark is what he is feeling right now. Taking a few steps closer, he moves his head to touch the door. His ear perks up as he listens for any noise coming from behind the door.

Faintly, his ear picks up something. Pushing his head harder, Sonic focuses more on the shuffling sound. The noise upon hearing it sounds more like sniffles or could be sheets moving around. Whatever it was, it had to be Amy.

“Is it unlocked?” Shadow asks.

“Dude, you never tried to open the door when you were searching for the emerald?!” Sonic swallows a chuckle that tries to escape. He could not believe that Shads would not try to search the room that for sure Amy would not want them to enter.

Rolling his eyes, Shads shakes his head. “ Now is not the time…”

“Right, my bad. . . ” 

His eyes land on the doorknob. With a shaking hand, Sonic grips the knob. Slowly, he turns it, giving it a soft pull. Nothing budges, the motionless door seems to be locked. He could not believe it, Amy Rose is someone who wants people to talk about their feelings. Now here she has locked them out, not giving them any option to talk or even just sit with her. Not noticing his hand vibrating badly now, Sonic feels the air much harder to take in. His breathing slows down as his anxiety cranks up a smudge. 

Amy maybe just accidentally locked the door, that has to be it. There is no way she may have locked it on purpose, wanting the boys to actually leave her alone. It is alright, he just now needs to find a way to unlock the door here and now. His hand feels sweaty, he jerks up as he feels his hand grip tighter on the handle. Glancing towards Shadow, he sees the red eyes staring with a new view that Sonic could not recognize on his Faker. 

Their eyes met. The bright red pupils almost glow with a concerned look to them. The new look makes Sonic feel even worse about the situation, his emotions bite inside. His free hand swings at the door with a loud exhale from his mouth. 

The door creaks open. 

It has to be a push, why did he think to pull at the nob? Sonic mentally pictures his hands slapping him, instead of physically doing it, Sonic chuckles silently as he glances at Shadow. An eye roll is all he receives from Shadow, which must mean he is at least relieved as well. Sonic moves his head back to the door, only seeing darkness from the crack. Swallowing the small pinching pain in his throat, Sonic peeks at Shadow for the next move.

Nodding his head, Shads motions to the open door. They now have to go and talk about feelings to the usual one that wants them to talk about their emotions. Oh how the times have changed, or how much did they tick Amy off. Sonic shakes his head, not understanding how Amy can so easily do things like this.

Chapter Text

Through the dark room, the only sound comes from the windows. The light rain danced against the glass, tapping along with Sonic’s slow steps. Each step raises anxiety about the next move after approaching an upset Amy. From behind, Sonic is thankful yet also surprised that Shadow has stayed and is willing to help out. Thinking to himself, Sonic only reasoning as to why Shads is even here has to be searching the last room for the Chaos Emerald he brought.

Each to their own, he is at least grateful that Shadow is here with him. Dealing with an emotional Amy Rose can go any direction. Usually, things would end up awkward for Sonic, as he would just give up and resort to giving a free date to Amy. However, times have changed and Amy has been less about their whole relationship stuff. He is thankful for the pressure off of him, but times like these he sometimes misses her little calls and sparkly eyes of love from her. Some days she still would give him those eyes, yet with less spark. Other times she would tease about a date or kiss him on the cheek. Sonic smiles softly through the darkness as he is glad they are friends, happy that Amy has been willing to stay friends and nothing more.

Thump!

Immediately pain slams hard at his foot. Flinching, Sonic whimpers as he bites his lip to stay silent. He feels the bed he stumped his toe into carefully. It allowed him to remember their mission here and now, yet the pain throbs even as he tries to continue. Biting harder into his lip, Sonic blocks out the small jabs of pain. He moves with caution towards the front of the bed. Being closer to Amy, Sonic hears her breathing from the bed. Each breath sounds if she is doing a breathing exercise. Knowing the sound of how her exhales and inhales change as it slowly decreases reminds him of the many times she used those exercises on others. 

Sonic moves even closer to the front of the bed, now with a great view of the window. Pausing, he peaks over to the curtains. From the room darkening curtains, he could vaguely make out lights from the city. It is effectively calming to his mind that he almost does not feel Shadow bumping into him. Behind him, he feels Shadow's feet stopping as he backs up a few steps. Not wanting to annoy Shadow even more, Sonic takes the push forward. Carefully, Sonic moves his feet across the soft carpet. Hearing Amy’s breathing up close that must mean that they are nearby Amy. Sonic reaches his hand out to feel for the fabric of the sheets. He has to make sure they reach Amy in the darkness without disturbing her. 

His hand touches something, not soft, yet smooth to his touch. The object flinches back, flying Sonic’s hand off onto a soft sheet. It clicks in on what he touched, he freezes his steps. Shadow must have continued to move, his foot stomps onto Sonic’s own foot hard. 

Not being able to contain his yelp, Sonic inhales sharply. “Youch!”

So much for being cautious…

Suddenly, from the bedside, a light flashes on. Raising his hand, Sonic blocks the brightness from his eyes as he adjusts to the new lighting. Blinking a few times, his eyes follow through as his vision clears up. Now being able to see better, he glances around. They have, in fact, made it to the bedside, having avoided a lamp and a shelf somehow through the darkness. Remembering that he did not touch the bed sheets, Sonic gazes up on the bed. There he sees Amy holding her hand, scanning it over.

He had touched her hand. 

If he was not already frozen by shock, he for sure is now. Widening his eyes, Sonic gulps down his embarrassment as he stares at Amy. The pink hedgehog reflects the same expression Sonic has. Her eyes are wide as she gawks at them with her body slowing her breathing down. 

“O-oh it was just you…” Amy states with a quiet voice.

Standing up straight, Shadow walks past Sonic. “Who else would it be?”

Getting up himself, Sonic awkwardly looks away. He wanted to enter and talk to Amy, now here he has the opportunity and he is not prepared at all. His confidence from outside the bedroom has burned away now, leaving icey chills inside him. 

Walking even closer, Shadow stands in front of Amy. “Why did you rush here?”

“H-huh?” Amy eyes around the room, her hands fiddling with each other.

Right to the point, great job Shadow. 

Sonic shakes his head as he approaches the two. “What he means to say,” Sonic nudges Shadow at the side, “how are you feeling?”
“I’m feeling, um,” Amy stops fidgeting with her fingers, not a good sign. “Better…”

Liar.

Refusing to tell the truth, she really knows how to take her own advice some days. Chuckling inside, Sonic passes over the thought as he reads the situation. Knowing Amy, she just wants them to buy her lies and continue on with the night. Sonic hates when they'd play along with her lies, it always ended worse or even exploded into a much bigger problem later on. 

“Amy, look at me.”

Her eyes stare at the pink sheets.

“Rose, look at us,” Shadow soothes Amy, his voice surprisingly quiet with emotion.

The voice from Shadow sounds so unreal that Sonic pauses as he glances at Shadow. Within seconds, Shadow gives a glare to Sonic before he directs himself back to Amy. In those few seconds, Sonic could have sworn he saw a worrisome look on the Faker.

“I-I. . .” Amy stutters, her voice quieter than before.

Sonic spins his head back to his friend, seeing her hands fall to the sides of her body. “Ames, look, I know, well. . .”

Rubbing his quills, Sonic chuckles nervously as he tries to think carefully of his next move. He needs to apologize, for Amy has the right to be mad at them. It is all entirely their fault for jumping to conclusions without listening to her. Sonic blinks rapidly as he looks up to see Amy staring directly at him.

“I . . .” Sonic tries to speak, nothing else comes out.

Just a simple apology and explanation is all he needs to spit out. He knows he genuinely means to say sorry, for he needs to get over his impulsive conclusion jumping. Amy could help with this, yet here she is staring with those big eyes. The two eyes staring up with unsettlement sparkling inside. Smile went away a bit ago, both ears waiting for Sonic to continue.

The air is harder to breathe. He has to get more air before he speaks, the lump in his throat scratches. Inside stinging as he tries to push out the rest of his sentence that had vaporized into air.

A hand grasps his shoulder firmly. Sonic blinks a few times before he glances to his side. Shadow’s eyes stare at his own, showing no emotion at all as his hand instead just gives a light squeeze before it loosens. Sonic smiles slightly at the small act Shadow did for him.

“We felt regret about our actions earlier and came to apologize.” His rival speaks up, keeping a straight tone.

Her eyes stay still, staring at them both. Nothing is further said, all is quiet. The hand on his shoulder falls off, laying at the side of Shadow as he eyes Sonic. In the quiet air a silent message is sent through Shadow’s stare, asking if he knows why Amy has not said anything or even acknowledged his statement. Having no answer, Sonic faintly shrugs to his rival. Not understanding the situation, Sonic only can think that Amy may want them to continue. 

Leaning closer to her, Sonic smiles faintly. “Ames, he is telling the truth. After you left, well I started to panic as Shades wanted to leave because of the emotions he was feeling. We both felt awful and still do about our actions.” He bites his lip as he still receives nothing. “If you want us to leave you, I guess we can. . .”

Besides him, he can hear a quiet grunt from Shadow. Sonic knows the Faker could not handle the feelings he had inside. Piecing together the truth of his sudden will to leave and not wanting to search Amy’s room.

Letting Shadow grumble wordlessly to himself, Sonic directs all his attention to Amy. They both have been worried about her and now she is just here sitting in silence.

Amy blinks at him, her eyes focus now only on him. His shoulder slump back, his own guilt tingles as it rises higher. Did they really upset her so badly that she does not even want to forgive them? No, Sonic has to think logically here, Amy must just be thinking of her next actions as well. She always tries to use her words with care and caution. Unless she is emotional, then she speaks whatever is on her mind. Sonic has seen her in such bad states that she could beat a robot into dust. Other times when she is crying, she can not think as she blanks out of any thoughts and remains quiet.

He hopes it is just her thinking or tiredness. His smile falters as he speaks with a shallow voice. “ Ames, please say at least something…”

Another blink, Amy’s eyes shut as she inhales sharply. Sonic watches patiently as Amy holds her breath. Besides them is Shadow giving a puzzled expression, wanting an explanation on what is happening. Having no clue, Sonic shares a puzzled face mixed with his worry.

Those seconds kept on going and Sonic started to grow inpatient. As his hope diminished as the time went on. All they could do is wait. If he pushes too much, it could make her explode. Having seen what Amy can do when she is ticked off is something he does not want to witness so closely and late.

Finally after only a few minutes that felt like hours, Amy wearily exhales slowly. Her eyes blinking rapidly before they slow, her emerald eyes beam as her body looks more relaxed for the first time this whole day.

Amy half-smiles to them, her breathing calm. “I didn't mean to alarm you both. I just needed time to cool down and gather my thoughts.” 

“W-what?” Sonic stutters in shock at how understanding Amy sounds. “You are not mad?”

“Of course I am mad!” Amy snaps, yet she stops herself as she shakes her head. “Look, I was just trying to see through both of your views. It got me thinking and well I realized you both have a good reason to be upset.”

“But you have a good reason behind your notes!”

“Do I?!” Amy grips the edges of her knees, her eyes cast down to her clothes. “I should not be writing about my friends behind their backs!”

“To try to make situations safer!” Sonic starts to raise his voice, pleading faintly for Amy to look back up at them. “I read more about those notes, you did not want to force friendships, you wanted to help situations not become worse.”

To his side, Sonic catches the surprise from Shadow. It vanishes in an instant, but he knows his rival is now probably thinking about it all. All Sonic wants is to fix this generous sleepover Amy offered them. “Look, I know I jumped to conclusion, like you said. I wanted to apologize about my actions and I would love to know how you are feeling now.”

“I—” Amy closes her eyes, still looking guilty.

“Come on Ames.” Sonic glances around, trying to figure out what his next words should be.

“I failed at it.”

Faltering, he takes a step back. Sonic stutters as confusion flips on. “What?”

Amy shakes her head as a dry laugh escapes. “I failed with my notes.”

Still not following, Sonic turns to Shadow to see if he understands. Even the Ultimate Life Form only blankly stares, both lost at Amy’s odd comment. 

Some must have clicked inside the hedgehog next to Sonic. Shadow turns back to Amy, having his mind together on the confusion comments. Sonic still is left out as he watches. The dark hedgehog leans down, reaching eye level with Amy.

“Look Rose, we both know I am not someone to be all into this emotional shit.” Shadow sighs as he gets no reaction. “However, you must have succeeded.”

Amy shakes her head, not daring to move anything else. Her body still refusing to move or look at the others only makes Sonic’s inside tighten. Without thinking, his hand slowly reaches towards her, only to be stopped by Shadow as he slaps it back gently.

“It has worked and had an effect that I am not a fan of.” 

“And what might that be?” Sonic interrupts, curiosity of his own taking over.

Giving a glare before he turns back to Amy, Shadow speaks more casually. “You baked those snacks I like and you let us choose those video games. Dammit, you're even willing to stay up late because we sleep whenever!”

It clicks in, Sonic nods his head as he now sees every action Amy has done tonight. If he thought back even further, he could count way more times that she has done things just like this for others. Amy has always been the type to make others have a good time, finding things they like. The notes are just reminders, kept to understand herself better. 

“Rose, I have been dealing with the emotion that is called regret because of this.” His voice stumbles towards the end, Shadow almost showing some emotion.

Sonic knows they both have felt bad, but hearing Shadow admit he feels regretful makes Sonic freeze up all his thoughts. The perfect hedgehog is admitting to emotions that he never tries to show. This alone is such example of how Amy affects them both.

“Oh you two. . .” Finally, Amy has stopped looking at her clothes. Her hands release from her knees as her face rises up. 

Sonic’s insides loosen as he sees the emerald eyes sparkle again. The anger from before, the sadness, it all has changed into teary eyes staring at them both. He can not help himself as the smile works its way onto his face. 

Mouth wobbly, Amy holds back any cries. Shadow stands straight up, bending his back straight as he watches them from above. 

“Amy, hey, it is all okay!” Sonic spots the few tears escaping down her cheek. 

Wiping her eyes, Amy chuckles shakily. “I know that now…” Without having a chance to move, Amy grabs Sonic’s hands. “I just feel silly, how I reacted and all. Yet, the two that are bad at feelings are here and trying to help me out!”

“Guess we met our common ground?”

It sounds cheesy and awkward. Sonic cringes at his statement, knowing that Shadow will deny having anything common with Sonic. Yet, without thinking, he threw out words. 

“If that is what you want to call it…” Shadow mumbles from the side.

The smile he receives from Amy is genuine and bright. “There is no way I did any of this!”

“But, because of you, we both came together to see how you are!” Sonic grins a little, letting Amy’s hands release his own.

Rolling her eyes, Amy sniffles as she dries her eyes. “There is no way out of that idea of yours, is there?”

“Yep!” Sonic grins wider as he moves out of the way for Amy.

Standing off the bed, her smile makes the room brighter as she glances between Sonic and Shadow. Following her gaze, Sonic spots Shadow's lips forming a teeny curl up. Amy moves in front of Sonic, making Shadow peer at him. Eyes swishing towards the pink hedgehog, Sonic can not help the grin forming on his own face.

“We really should get some rest now.” Shadow said as he crossed his hands.

He agrees with Shadow, as it is extremely late that the entire apartment building now should be asleep. Even if he does not feel tired and Shadow can stay up most nights with not much sleep, they still like to rest their eyes and body. 

Sonic nods his head with his feet edging closer to the door. “We should clean the mess out there first, then let's get some rest.”

“Sounds fine.” Shadow mumbles as he passes Sonic out the doorway. 

“Rest sounds great!” Amy hums as she walks over, her feet stop as she stands in front of Sonic. “Again, thanks. I know I can be a pain sometimes, but like are you sure that does not bug you?”

“Of course you can be a pain, sometimes even drive me insane. . .” Sonic chuckles as he continues, “however, mixed with that stubbornness, there is a sweetness inside you. Ames, I see you trying to make others feel safe and happy in situations that they hate. That is why I am happy that you can be a pain, a good pain that can make sure others work together for the best outcome.”

“Sonic, thank you.” Slamming into him, Amy hugs him tightly.

Stunned, Sonic gasps in shock. Amy is hugging him, a genuine happy hug. Feeling her hand slowly move away, Sonic raises his own hands around Amy. Lightly he wraps his arms around her, letting the warmth of her clothes touch him barely. 

It feels so nice. As he hears a silent noise from Amy, Sonic releases her from his hands. The hug ends as the door shuts them in the dark room. 

“Sonic!”

“S-sorry!” Immediately, he reaches for the doorknob as he stutters.

Opening the door back up, Sonic spots Shadow staring at them. Oops, he must have watched that all play out. How awkward this must be. 

“Whenever you two are done doing whatever that is,” Shadow gestures with a flick of his hand, “can we get this place cleaned?”

“Of course Shads!” Said Sonic as he heads over to the couch. “I can prepare the blankets and you can clean this table off!”

He can tell Shadow wants to disagree, but he says nothing. Immediately, he gets to work on the table. Sonic glances an eye at Amy. The pink hedgehog is picking up pillows on the floor that Shadow and him threw earlier. 

With all three of them clearing the room, things would be ready in a flash. Sonic for the first time tonight, finally feels relaxed. That probably will change once Shadow finds a way to complain about how his spot is prepared. In fact, they probably will argue again about who is sleeping where.

It can all wait for later. He wants to have this small calm wave period. Amy can help them out after all, it is her place that they are staying. 

Chapter Text

With the trash bin overfull, Sonic dusts his hands off above the can. Checking the area, he sees how spotless it has become. The room is cleared, both the couch and chair have sorted blankets to go with each. Entering the now tidy room, Sonic slouches down onto the couch.

It only took a few minutes to get the room cleaned up. The most difficult part was trying to find good pillows and blankets that would hopefully not end with a fight. His own taste in what he is willing to sleep with added with Shadow’s mind made things frustrating with the many pink options. He got lucky once he found some red colors hidden under most of the piles.

With it all situated, everything has led to this point. The point with the question that could end this night with disaster. If they play the right moves they could just be both willing to be flexible and go with whatever. He knows he needs to have a more open mind, but the question should still be asked.

“Guess we need to solve this sleeping situation?” He gestures to the chairs, his hands feel exhausted as they fall down to his sides.

Shadow shrugs as he stays standing beside the couch. No care at all is drawn on his face. This whole response is a victory, Sonic wants to cheer about in the quietness. Pausing his victory chants inside his mind, he follows the blank face from Shadow. 

They are staring directly across the room. Shadow’s full attention is on Amy, who is digging around in a bin beside a shelf. Now that he thinks about it, she has been there for at least ten minutes. Almost the whole time they have been tidying the place.

Not knowing what Amy is doing, Sonic tries to let it be. He helped Shadow deal with the food crumbs on the couch and floor. They originally wanted a vacuum, but Amy shouted at them that it was late night, reasoning how rude they would be to the neighbors and others around. 

Even when she directed them to another solution, she was in the corner still. The action is still going on, so this must be something important. Amy earlier seemed to be eager to get some rest. Instead, she is now fully invested in whatever is in this bin.

“Ames, what are you looking for?”

Leaning forward, Sonic tries to see inside the bin. Perking up, Amy stops digging around. Her hand pulls out something from the box. Leaping off the carpet, she flashes the item in her hands.

It is a movie.

Knowing Amy’s taste, it must involve romance.

“Is that a movie?” Shadow grunts, “didn’t you say we needed to rest?”

“Yes rest, not sleep!” With a proud smile, Amy beams at them both.

Sonic chuckles as he watches how delighted Amy looks. Sonic knows there is no way to fight Amy’s choice of wording there. He knows that they should be in bed by now, yet sleep has never been a popular choice for him. Naps have always been his thing, but this is a sleepover with Amy. Her own sleep is important in her daily life.

He should try to get Amy to sleep, but before he can start to reason with her, she starts to set the movie up. Her eyes wide as her body found a spark of energy somehow. It is shocking to see her from a few minutes ago to now. 

“Amy, maybe we should go to bed?” Sonic said, “Come on, it is really late.”

Pouting, Amy shakes her head. “This is a sleepover, Sonic. One movie, then we can head to bed.”

No she needs sleep and he does not want to be the reason why Amy fails to have sleep tonight. He needs backup and there is only one other person in the room. Hating to admit it, Sonic gives a begging eye to Shadow. Instead of seeing the Faker still standing, looking bored, he is not there. Sonic glances towards the couch, not believing his eyes.

Shadow is sitting down, practically waiting for the movie. 

“Shadow,” In shock, Sonic pauses as he takes in the sight. “not you as well!”

Blinking, Shadow flashes a glance at Sonic before his eyes flash away. “Are you against having to avoid sleep for another hour?”

It is a fair point for himself. Skipping sleep and having no Tails to nag at him about its importance does sound pleasing. Needing time to skip so the sun could be his light, a movie does sound like a good time waster— Wait, no he needs to get his head in the right place here. Amy needs sleep, if she passes on rest things may be worse coming in the morning. 

“No, we need to sleep, it is really late!” Shaking his head, Sonic grumbles as he squeezes into the couch harder.

“Oh come on Sonic!” Amy plants herself down in the middle again. “You can sleep through it if you must, I just want to do the tradition of most sleepovers!”

She gazes at Sonic, begging as she squeezes her hands together. She really wants to watch this movie so badly. Having proved how devoted she was when she went searching instead of helping them tidy things up. There is no way out of this and he hates it.

“Fine,” Sonic sighs in defeat as he pauses to hear the faint cheer from Amy. “But what is even this movie about, like it better not be a romantic mo—”

“There is romance. . .”

“Great…”

Amy crosses her arms, sulking besides Sonic at his remark. “It is not the main focus.”

“What is it then?” Shadow asks from the side, his voice ringing a faint pitch of annoyance.

“How about we just watch it and find out?” Amy said, “Please, I think you both will enjoy this as there is a fighting scene with guns.”

She got to Shadow, who has perked up a little. His expression on his face looks mixed, but he is now paying attention to the screen as logos flash across. 

Huffing out a breath, Sonic speaks up. “This is really what you want to do?”

Shifting her head, Amy perks up with her eyes. Her smile gives off a wider stretch as she stares at him. “Yes and I think you will enjoy this as well. Oh before I forget. . .”

Amy leaps off the couch, speeding away to the wall. She taps the switch, turning the lights off and leaving only the glow from the lamp from her bedroom doorway. The dim room somehow makes Sonic feel a wave of tiredness that he did not know he had inside. 

“This is how you should watch a movie!” Amy chuckles as she sets herself down between them.

Music starts to play, soothing with forest scenery in the background. How the movie flashes towards people singing makes Sonic glance at Amy with another question.

“I swear, is this a musical?” Shadow beats him to the question with a more annoyed ring to it.

Shaking her head, she shrugs as with a pause. “No— I mean like they do have a few parts they sing like this, but not as much?”

It could all work out. Sonic did not hate musicals, they just are never his favorite. Hearing before that there are fight scenes with weapons and now some singing, this movie sounds like a typical Amy Rose interest. He lets his body relax as the music fades, showing what looks to be the main character of the movie. To his side, he hears the hum from Ames as her eyes sparkle once he appears on screen.

To see his close friend be this excited to watch one of her favorite movies, it makes him smile. Accidentally, he catches Shadow’s expression as the protagonist speaks, explaining about the situation. The dark looking hedgehog has a small smirk as he looks content with the situation. Leaving before Shadow could take notice of his glancing eyes, Sonic pays attention to the movie. If this is one of Amy’s favorites, he should try to understand it. She would not let him live if he zoned out the entire thing. Even if he came up with an excuse of being tired, which he is, but that's besides the point. 

Surprisingly, it was better than he expected. 

Becoming more aware of his surroundings, Sonic rapidly blinks as he takes his eyes off the credits on the screen. The first thing he spots is the warmth at his right, touching his skin barley. 

Leaning against him, Amy has her head resting on a pillow, which she snatched from Shadow during the movie, laying half on his arm. Her hand lays to her side, lightly brushing his fur as it gives the warmth. Sonic pauses as he notices how easy it is to see the colors of Amy’s fur.

Right, the other thing he noticed is how light the room has become. Only light source they kept besides the television itself is her lamp in her bedroom. The room that is behind them and the door blocked it from flashing any reflection on the screen. 

Trying to unravel the mystery, Sonic swirls his head to ask Shadow. “Hey, Shades is it just me —”

Shadow is missing.

“I am here, just dealing with the movie.” The dark voice booms above him.

Gazing up, Sonic sees Shadow leaning on the back of the couch. Tapping a few buttons as he proceeds to turn the movie off. Shadow tosses the remote at the table beside them. His face unmoved as he walks towards the window.

“Why is it bright in here?” Sonic asks with a yawn. Noticing how tired he is now, it hits like a Eggman missile to the chest.

Taking the edge of the curtain, Shadow yanks it slightly. From the small crack, a light shines into the room. It is too bright to be street lights or car headlights. It had to be bigger, something above…

“Wait, is that the sun?” He falters with a whisper, he could choke on his question.

Shadow only nods, releasing the curtain as it envelopes them with a dimmer lighting. Everything comes to him, all the events from the night they had together. Each moment, they stayed up all night long.

He could not believe it. A full night with no sleep and it was at one of his friends' places. If Tails here about this, he would not hear the end of his brother’s nags of worry. Thinking of his brother, he would probably be back by now. Breathing hitches for a second as he thinks to check on his phone. With Tails knowing that Sonic never sent him an image of his resting place, it would all lead to a paranoid little brother.

Darting his hands to his hoodie on the table beside him. Quickly he pulls out his phone, tapping the power button. Flashing the small light, Sonic squints a few seconds as he sees the few notifications he has.

Tails has sent two messages and a missed call.

Opening the app, Sonic reads the two messages from his little brother. “Sonic, hope you have a good night's sleep!” Skipped entirely, oops. “You did find a place right? We are going to have a talk if you did not!”

The missed call was just an hour ago. A voicemail is sitting in the inbox. Taking a quick breath, Sonic puts the phone to his ear as he waits for the recording to start.

“Sonic it is Tails. I came home tonight, so if you still need a place or are awake you can come over. Hope you are somewhere with a roof, a pretty bad storm did come through, as Professor Pickle had warned me. Um, anyway see you soon!” A light beep, then nothing.

Not being able to hold it back, Sonic smiles as he gazes down at Ames. She saved him from having a drenched night. This whole ordinal has been worth it, even if he did mess up big time.

“Guess we can leave then?” His thoughts are interrupted by Shadow.

Sonic stares at Shades, not understanding his question. “What are you talking about?”

“The sun, it is out.” He gestures to the window, rolling his eyes as if he knew Sonic would not be aware of what is happening. “Rose offered her place until the storms are done.”

“You can not leave when she is asleep!” Sonic whispers in a raised voice. “She would be hurt if you left without saying something.”

Shadow grunts as he walks towards the bin to put the movie back. “Whatever, maybe I can just give her a note or something. . .”

A note, that is brilliant! Sonic brushes his hand lightly through Amy’s quills. The response is she is nuzzling into the pillow more. Carefully, Sonic lays the pillow down as he leaves the cushions of the couch. 

The paper on the coffee table could work. He hates to leave before she is up, but she only just got to sleep sometime during the movie. Ironically, she fell asleep during the action scene, it made him chuckle once he noticed. Shaking the smile that crept onto his face, he pulls the paper towards him.

Tails probably wants to see him sooner rather than later. Without knowing where Sonic has been, things may be bad for the fox. Taking the pen from a pencil held on a shelf, he prepares to give a brief thank you note.

“Dear Amy, as you can tell, I am not here. I had somewhere else to be, yet did not want to leave you without saying thank you. You caught Shadow and I in the park doing exactly as you said. We were fighting for some shelter. I am grateful for your generous act to let us stay here, even if we are a bit messy with the sleepover.”

Sonic nods at how the note is coming together. The paper is snatched from him along with the pen. “Hey, wait—”

“Quiet, hedgehog…” Shadow snarls with a mumble as he writes below Sonic’s own words.

Great, now it is mixed up. This whole letter is going to be a bust with how things are going. Crossing his arms, Sonic allows the Faker to run the letter. All fighting would do is wake Amy from having much sleep at all. He has to suck up his annoyance and let it be.

“Here, no need for anything else…” Shadow tosses the paper as he walks away.

Gently, Sonic takes the note. He reads the words Shadow wrote down, which shockingly continues his thoughts.

“ Even if this place is not ideal for me, I had a decent time to rest my body. Sonic and I owe you a safe place now, if that was your extension. If not, I still owe you. See you around Rose.”

It is not much, but somehow it is one of the closest thank yous Shadow has ever given. With how different their writing styles are, he is sure Amy would know when the writer changed. Satisfied with the note, Sonic lets it down onto the coffee table. Available to be read once Amy is awake and hopefully not worried about where they are.

Wait where they are. Sonic beams as he gets an idea for his brother. Sliding the hoodie on, Sonic pulls the phone up to aim at the couch. With the camera set, he taps the button a few times as he captures the scene. 

Perfect, he can send one of these before he races to his little brother. Searching for the best one, he spots Shadow entering Amy’s room through a shot. 

“Shads?” Sonic slides the phone into his pocket.

Entering the room, he walks closer to the bedside. Leaning down and digging in the shelf beside the bed, Shadow pulls out the emerald he had. Right, he refused to leave because of that thing.

“Guess this is my farewell for now, hedgehog…” His eyes narrow as he moves the emerald closer to himself.

Nodding, Sonic smiles slightly. “See you around. . .” He reaches out with a hand, patting Shadow’s shoulder. “Softie.”

Shoving Sonic's hand off his shoulder, Shadow snarls as he teleports away. Chuckling, Sonic shakes his head as he lightens up. Next stop, his brother’s place. Leaving the room, Sonic stops at the couch. 

Even if the note said his thanks, he still felt like he should say it himself. “Ames, I. . . Thank you for being you.”

Not a second later, he dashes out of the apartment. Two seconds later, he beats the stairs and is at the door. With a shove, the door opens to the damp city. It took a hit from the storm, it made something inside tingle even more. He is so glad to have friends such as Amy and even Shadow. Maybe he would have sleepovers more often.