Work Text:
Amy is filling out her calendar when she realizes it. “Oh my gosh!”
Cream looks up from where she’s been reading, cozy and settled in her preferred armchair when she visits Amy’s cottage. “What’s wrong?”
“I was making sure I’ve written down everyone’s birthdays for the rest of the year when I realized,” she turns her trusted and reliable planner, worn at the edges but the pages are newly updated every year, “I don’t know Shadow’s birthday!” She pouts as her hands and planner in tow thump into her lap despondently. “Cream, you hang out with him sometimes, has he mentioned it to you before?”
Cream’s ears bounce as she shakes her head. “No, Mr. Shadow doesn’t say much about himself.” Her doey expression mirrors that of Amy’s distress. “I feel terrible, I’ve never even thought to ask!”
Amy reaches a hand over to pat Cream’s hand, “Don’t be upset about that – this is easily fixed anyway. We just need to find out asap! Rouge knows everything about everyone, especially Shadow, I’ll ask her!”
The rabbit’s visage brightens, “Good idea, Amy!”
Unfortunately, as good as the idea might have seemed, it proved unfruitful.
“Honey, why would I know something like that,” Rouge’s tone was flippant but not unkind over the phone. “Getting Shadow to talk about anything is like pulling teeth, never mind asking him something so ‘trivial’ about himself.” Amy could hear the air quotes without even needing to see it. “But I’ll save you a lot of trouble, hun, Shadow doesn’t even know everything about his own past, something as precise as his birthday would be a tough find. Of course,” her tone took a 180 turn from casual to suggestively chipper, “for the right price, I would do some digging for you.”
Amy huffed, “Rouge, you know I don’t have any money or gems for you.”
“Too bad,” She tuts, “now you have me a bit curious!”
But Rouge isn’t one to meddle for curiosity’s sake so Amy tries a different approach.
“Wait,” Knuckles stops when he realizes exactly where Amy is headed, “is this where you’re going?”
Amy shoulders her purse more securely over her shoulder. She decided grocery shopping on the way back from her mission would make sense in case she procured anything that needed to be refrigerated. “Yep! Don’t fall behind, Knuckles, I have to make it back in time before the shops close.”
“Amy!” Knuckles sputters. “You can’t be serious! I thought you wanted me to help you find something! What are we doing headed to Egg man’s base?”
“Helping me find something,” she grinned. She turns with a hand on her hip. “Knuckles, let’s go.”
Knuckles frowns and crosses his arms, defiant. “I don’t think so Amy. This is way too dangerous. What business could you possibly have in there?”
“I have to ask Eggman something about Shadow,” Amy says. The weather is balmy, but the sun is high in the sky making it a bit uncomfortable to stand so rigidly under. Amy flips her bangs out of her eyes and huffs. “It’ll be five minutes. C’mon, I was being safe and everything, I brought the toughest guy I know to help me in case Eggman is in a bad mood!” She knows flattery at times gets her way with Knuckles, but she also really means it. While she isn’t particularly frightened at the prospect of facing Eggman alone, it’s always better to be safe than sorry, and you’re always stronger with friends, after all.
The echidna is unmoved for a moment, until finally releasing a resigned breath. “Alright fine,” he starts walking again. “But if things start going sideways, we’re out of there immediately.”
“Of course,” Amy chirps and continues forward again.
“What’s so important about Shadow that you gotta ask Eggman?”
“I need to know his birthday.” She rolls her eyes when Knuckles sputters out a shocked noise. It’s possible he’s stopped in his tracks again, but Amy trudges up the rocky path determinedly.
“Birthday? Why on earth do you need to know that?”
“It’s important,” she calls over her shoulder. “He’s done a lot for us, you know, it’s terrible we haven’t even given him a birthday party.”
She hears his footsteps stomping forward again and she smiles to herself, pleased. “I dunno, Amy, Shadow doesn’t seem the party type. You really picture him blowing out birthday candles and wearing one of those party hats?”
Amy does picture it; it makes her giggle, but nevertheless, she agrees that it’s a bit far-fetched to think Shadow might indulge in traditions like that, but not impossible. Besides, it’s not really about the cake and the candles, it’s about showing Shadow how many friends he has, and how much they care about him that they want to celebrate a day just for him!
“Hey, and anyway, how come you need to ask the doctor about this? Don’t you think Tails’ could do his hacking business and figure it out?”
“Well, yeah, I thought that, but Tails is out on a mission with Sonic right now,” it’s starting to get really hot as they get further on the island, the lava rivulets beginning to appear in the nearby horizon. Eggman would have to put his big stupid base in the most obviously villainous location for a liar, but that’s the egotistical doctor for you. “Besides, I think Rouge is right, that there isn’t much information available about Shadow. I’m hoping Eggman might know from reading his grandpa’s diaries or something more personal like that.”
Knuckles grunts in response before they continue forward in silence. Until, “What kind of present do you even give a guy like Shadow anyway?”
Amy has been pondering that herself, of course, but one mystery at a time.
And a truly muddled mystery it’s turning out to be.
“Even if I did know,” Eggman spits, “I wouldn’t tell you rodents for all the chaos emeralds in the world!”
Amy rolls her eyes, she was already going to miss the supermarket run since she and Knuckles had to escape from not one but two annoying traps, and then listen to Eggman drone on and on about how he’d capture them and turn them to robot fuel for trespassing before collapsing back into his big chair resignedly. “This isn’t anything crazy, you know, it’s just a date! And didn’t you notice that we didn’t destroy any of your eggbots? I made sure we were extra careful!” She knew breaking Eggman’s things is the most sure way to guarantee Eggman’s wrath. They defiantly could have been out of here a long time ago if Amy had been able to use her hammer and pounded through the annoying things. “Can’t you please just tell me this one thing? We’ll leave as soon as you do!”
Eggman scowled. “You’re a conniving one, Miss Rose, but you’ll be disappointed to know that I haven’t the faintest clue when Shadow’s birthday is, considering he was never actually birthed.”
“His awakening day then! Conception, no, inception date?” Amy clasps her hands. She’s come so far, and made Knuckles do all this work of holding back smashing things, she can’t go back empty handed, she can’t! “Any date!”
“If it’s any date you want, just pick one,” Eggman gruffs. “There is no record of it, probably because it wasn’t important.”
“Don’t say that!” Amy stomps her foot. Her hands drop to her sides in fists, feeling a righteous rage burn in her chest, “Of course it matters, Shadow isn’t just some experiment, he’s-!”
“Amy..” Knuckles places a hand on her shoulder. He gives her a look, one that communicates to her to take a breath and calm down. To Eggman, he says, “I find it hard to believe something the professor worked so hard on wasn’t documented heavily… There’s really no record of his first day awake or anything like that?”
Eggman drums his fingertips on the chair, still looking just as annoyed but he tilts his head, considering. “I suppose there is something like that, but grandpa’s diary was destroyed in the destruction of the ARK and nothing of that sort was included in Project Shadow. I’m afraid you wasted your time little hedgehog.”
“You’re really not lying?” Amy asks, not even accusatory in her asking, almost hopeful, actually.
“I have no reason to lie about that,” he sneers. “I also have no further of my own time to waste on you two. Now get out of here before I change my mind about letting you both walk free.”
Amy was uncharacteristically downcast as they walked back home. Knuckles was silent, but a comforting presence at her side. Before they made it back into town, he says, “Maybe it isn’t important.”
Amy snaps her head to her friend in shock, “Knuckles, how-“
“No, I mean,” he shakes his head, “we don’t celebrate birthdays because of what the date is, but because of what it means to us. We’re celebrating the person, not the day, after all.” He offers a gentle squeeze to Amy’s shoulder, and it warms her right to the heart as his words spark inspiration like lightning.
She embraces Knuckles, throwing her arms around him gratefully, “You’re exactly right, Knuckles, thank you! I know just what I need to do now!”
~*~
Apparently, it took quite a bit of cajoling to get Shadow to accompany Rouge to Amy’s house. It was under the guise of tea and chatting, for which Shadow rarely turns Amy down, but apparently the addition of Rouge had him changing his mind. “Maybe he’ll think he’ll be left out of the conversation,” Amy fretted over the phone to the bat when she learned of the trouble Rouge had getting Shadow to commit to coming.
“I think he just likes having you to himself,” Rouge chuckles, and Amy’s glad for her affinity for using antiquated technology. She loved her landline phone with the curly chord that she often twisted between her fingers idly as she chatted, and she especially loved the lack of face video so she could freely blush in private.
“W-well, I dunno about that,” she says, fanning her face to soothe the heat in her cheeks, “Just tell him I’m making those double espresso chocolate chip cookies he likes so much. Which I am for the party of course, but just tell him that to sweeten the deal. There’s no way he’d skip out on those.”
Thankfully, that seemed to do the trick, and as soon as Rouge let Amy know Shadow promised to attend, Amy made all the necessary arrangements.
She was sure to tone down in some areas, not wanting Shadow to be completely miserable or out of his element – that wouldn’t be much of a surprise after all, that’s an ambush – and double checked the guest list to make sure everyone had agreed to come. Some needing some convincing (“No, Sonic, Shadow isn’t going to hit you – well, just don’t provoke him on his birthday, then!”), and some reassuring, (“Well, I’m making something homemade for Shadow, but you don’t have to bring a gift if you don’t want- uhm, sure, Big, I guess Shadow might like a fishing rod?..”), but most seemed excited at the prospect of a day to celebrate with Shadow. Amy was giddy, honestly, she couldn’t wait to show Shadow how much his friends really loved him!
The night before the party, Amy was up wrapping her gift when she was struck with a bout of uncharacteristic anxiety,
Shadow wouldn’t be mad right? Amy isn’t usually on the receiving end of his anger but knows with his temper he’s hardly selective. But more than that, she just doesn’t want to hurt him in any way. Surely, he would see the gesture of the party for what it is, a chance for everyone to show their gratitude and love for Shadow. She reaffirms to herself that this is a good idea as she perfects the bow tied around his gift for the millionth time that night.
~*~
“So, are we jumping out and yelling surprise?” Sonic asks, reaching for a cookie before Amy smacks his hand away.
“Stop being impatient,” she tsks, then replies, “I don’t think we need to hide-“
“But it’s a surprise party, right?” Vector tromps over suddenly, nearly startling Amy enough to fall into the dessert table. “So, we should definitely hide!”
“No, no hiding!” Amy huffs, but Charmy is already trying to stuff Espio into a closet and Silver starts looking on anxiously as he seems to wonder if he should be hiding or not, looking to Blaze for direction but she’s distracted in conversation with Big and Cream to worry about hiding in closets or behind couches.
“Not that you haven’t done a great job here, Ames,” Sonic rests his hands behind his head, “but don’t you think we should have gone to the park or something? Aren’t you worried about Knuckles and Vector breaking things?”
Amy pokes him in his side, knowing well Knuckles is very careful around her knick knacks – Vector, well, hopefully he can behave for a few hours, “I wanted Shadow to be comfortable,” Amy says. “He’s familiar with my place and there’s rooms in case he gets overwhelmed or something and needs a break.”
Sonic huffs a laugh, “Wow, you really got Shadow down to a science, huh? I can’t even tell when he’s about to chaos control away or punch me if I say hello.”
She fusses with the décor, simple green and white streamers, nothing extravagant like she usually throws for her friends, but she figures Shadow is more of a lowkey party haver; thus, simple streamers and confections it is. “Shadow isn’t so hard to read,” she gives Sonic a teasing squint, “you just have to learn how to pay attention.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure. When is he getting here anyway, I’m so hungry, Ames, can’t I just have one-“
“Amy!” Cream hops over, eyes sparkling in excitement. “He’s here, he’s here!”
“Everyone hide!” Charmy chirps, fluttering about the air in a tizzy.
“Don’t hide-!“
Without bothering to knock, Rouge welcomes herself inside, closely followed by Shadow – who immediately becomes bewildered seeing the amount of beings inside the house. He finds Amy’s gaze for a moment before looking to Rouge for explanation.
The bat flourishes her hands with a wink, saying, “Happy birthday!” Everyone follows suit in, cheering and apparently popping some contraband noise makers (Team Chaotix smuggled them in, no doubt).
Shadow frowns, “Birthday...?”
“Well!” Amy skitters forward. “Sort of! We- I couldn’t find out your real birthday but I just really thought you deserved something like this so,” she gestures to the big banner her and their friends worked together on, a painted canvas declaring “We’re So Glad You’re Here Day!” When Shadow remains unmoved and looking no closer to understanding, Amy tucks a quill behind her ear, “Anyway, I really did make you those cookies, and you don’t have to stay all day or anything, but we all just wanted to celebrate you.”
Shadow blinks, frown steadfast but at least not looking angry, just befuddled. “I see.” He says simply.
Sonic is at Amy’s side in a breath, asking with a grin, “Is that Shadow talk for we can get this party started?”
Rouge laughs while Shadow rolls his eyes, but not unkindly. “I suppose so.”
“Let’s eat gang!” Sonic declares, and within moments, it’s a proper party, music and eating and chattering.
Rouge sticks close to Shadow’s side, clearly giving him explanations or direction on what to do, which Amy would have been happy to do if she didn’t have to make sure Sonic didn’t swoop in and eat all of the regular chocolate chip cookies, (“At least leave the birthday boy one!” “It’s not even his birthday!”)
Playing host and chef is hard work, but nothing Amy isn’t used to and she loves it, honestly; she loves having her friends near and making sure they’re having a good time. Most of the group did seem to make an effort to speak to Shadow one on one, or hand him gifts, and Amy was glad everyone was mindful not to overcrowd him – of course, they could be scared of getting Shadow angry rather than overwhelmed, but a win is a win, she supposes.
She’s busy setting up the cake, making sure the candles are arranged properly when Shadow approaches her. “Hi Shadow!” She grins, “Are you enjoying the party?”
Shadow nods once, “It’s nice.” He crosses his arms, hesitating it seems. “Rouge tells me this was your idea.” To an untrained ear, the statement certainly sounded like an accusation, but Amy just waved her hand.
“Well, I was looking and my calendar and realized you weren’t in it, so I did some digging – I hope that was okay, but you know, I always say better to ask for forgiveness than permission, and anyway-“
“It’s-“ His voice gave her pause but he seemed to be looking for the words, so Amy allowed him a moment. “It’s fine. That you were looking into it, I mean. Obviously, you didn’t learn anything more than I already know but…” Amy’s gaze flicked to the twitch in his fingers before looking back into his eyes. “It’s…nice.”
If Amy was a flower, she probably would have bursted into blooms right then at his words. “Really?” She practically squealed. “You do?”
“I wouldn’t say I am particularly drawn to the idea of an annual party,” he grouses, but smirks a little, just a hint of mirth. “Nevertheless, the gesture was kind.” His ear flicks as he adds, “And appreciated.”
“Oh, good!” She can’t help it, she launches herself into him, wrapping her arms around his quills while he awkwardly pats at her back. “I’m so glad you liked it! I was a little worried but I knew you’d understand! Oh!” She jerks away, “I have to give you your present! Just a second!” She rushes to the livingroom closet, having to usher Espio out of it (“Have you been in there the whole time?” “No one told me to come out!”) and returned to Shadow to produce her neatly wrapped gift.
“Have you gotten a lot of gifts already?” She asks as she hands it over.
Shadow takes it gingerly. Amy has always been fascinated at the elegance of his hands; his clenched fists and harsh leather would suggest a brutish hold but Amy has noticed that Shadow handles most things gently, as though everything is fragile beneath his touch. “I was gifted a fishing rod from Big, a scrapbook of a variety of foliage from Cream, and Sonic gave me a pair of socks.” He glanced over to the stack of already opened presents, a glaringly obvous trend in the pile, “And quite a few coffee mugs…”
Amy giggles, “Well, a lot of people were asking me what to get you, but I don’t think I was much help,” she laughed. “I kind of took you for utility over frivolity, sooo,” she gestured to the present, coaxing him to open it.
After carefully discarding the wrapping he opened the box and Amy’s heart fluttered anxiously, but the excited sort.
“I…I’m not sure what this is,” Shadow admits.
Amy laughs, mostly at how apologetic Shadow looks. “It’s a coffee cozy! I knitted it myself,” she explains as she takes it out of the box to show him. It was an emerald green knitted piece with a button clasp sewed into it. “See, you wrap it around your mug and it’s like a cute little sweater for it! And, okay, I know I said it wasn’t frivolous but it really isn’t! This way you don’t even have to put your gloves on to have coffee in case the mug is too hot! Helpful, right?” She beams, “And I figured you would get a lot of mugs, so I made you a few, I didn’t know your favorite colors even though I’ve asked you like a million times, so I hope this is okay.” She showcases him the black, red, and white selections as well. She tried to avoid using blue for obvious reasons.
Shadow continues to look at the cozies for a moment, then says, “There’s no pink.”
Amy blinks in surprise. “S-sorry?”
“I,” he coughs into his fist, obfuscating his gaze, “I like pink too…”
Amy feels her cheeks turning to apparently one of his favorite colors. “O-oh, I see, um, well, I can always make you another one! And more! Any color your like!” She inwardly winced as she noticed her voice getting pitchier so she quickly bit her tongue before she reached whistle tones.
“Thank you.” He nodded, and held the box close to his chest. “ I appreciate the git. And the party.” He paused. “And the cookies.”
“Good!” Amy smiled, still fighting the blush rising in her face. “Well, um, I need to check on,” she gestures vaguely, “you know, hostess and everything,” she hurried away before she could stutter more over her words and look like even more of a fool.
Before Amy could get too far away, she heard Rouge approach Shadow, saying, “You like pink, hm?”
“Shut up.”
“Very subtle, very smooth.”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to annoy the birthday boy,” Shadow grouses.
She hears Rouge laugh before she hides away into the kitchen. She fans her cheeks, and manages to calm her heartrate. Somehow, she wasn’t able to keep the smile off her face, though.