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They’re in Amy’s house, because despite Amy’s best efforts, Sticks’s burrow has once more been filled with garbage, and what, did you expect them to be at someone else’s house? Now that would just be weird, wouldn’t it.
Their other friends are out together on some kind of b-plot (is it still the b-plot if it’s off-page? Sticks doesn’t think it matters, as long as it doesn’t somehow count as the a-plot) so she’s been left with Amy again. She doesn’t mind. In fact, she’s practically said it to their faces before that Amy is her favorite. And they don’t mind! Probably.
Or maybe they do mind, and just haven’t said otherwise, but at that point, Sticks would have to come up with a plan to force that out of them, and who has the time for something like that? That sounds like b-plot sort of stuff, and Sticks is in the a-plot.
The only thing that really surprises her about their situation is that Amy is here at all. Not that she usually breaks into Amy’s house to hang out there alone, because she only spies on it from the outside, you Government freaks, always expecting the worst of her… But what usually happens is that Sticks is left on the side, assumed to be foraging or setting traps out in the wilderness until Eggman attacks, whilst Amy is joining their other friends in a-plot wacky adventures.
Sticks looks over at her. Currently, she’s morosely sweeping the floor, and she doesn’t seem to realize that she’s not being at all believable by only dealing with the same boomerang-long patch over and over again.
Has Amy been replaced by aliens? Sticks really hopes not, because as established, Amy is her favorite around here, and she’d much rather they took Knuckles, if anyone had to be abducted. But if Amy has been replaced by aliens, then Sticks will get to look very cool when she’s the one who realizes what’s going on and rescues the real Amy — that’s sure to impress her.
It would impress everyone, actually, but she doesn’t really care what the rest of them think. She wants Amy to like her, because Amy is her favorite hopelessly uninitiated potential-abduction-target, and she wants Amy to look at her like she currently only looks at Sonic.
…On second thought, maybe Sticks hopes that Sonic is the one to be taken away by aliens.
“What’s your opinion on hostile planetary takeovers?” she asks.
Slowly, Amy looks over at her. “Sticks…” wearily, she replies. “Obviously, I wouldn’t like it if the planet was invaded.”
She sounds genuine. Sticks is about ninety-percent sure now that this Amy isn’t an alien. (Never one-hundred-percent, because being sure of stuff like that is how they get you.)
Then maybe she’s a robot? No, no, technology is already also just biding its time, waiting for the right day to start an uprising. What about Government Agent? The Government has already taken over, after all. Oh no, has Amy been a Government Spy the whole time? And now she’s just doing a bad job at pretending to sweep the floor because she’s trying to steal information out of Sticks because she knows Sticks is the closest one to being onto her!?
Sticks doesn’t want to have to pick a new favorite! She can’t pretend to like Tails or Sonic best, because she can’t pretend that she wants to be swept up into their arms, whilst they take her away to prepare a shiny new apocalypse bunker together!
“Then what about illegal mind control and data-stealing surveys?”
“And I’m not a Government Agent!” Amy huffs moodily.
But that’s exactly what a Government Agent would say…
Sticks watches her warily. “Well, you don’t smell bad, but you did come knockin’ on my door earlier asking after me…”
Amy throws her broom down in frustration, and stomps over to the couch. She has her feet up on it despite still wearing shoes, and that’s how Sticks knows that something is really wrong here. She follows Amy over, and tries to watch her even closer.
“If this is just some weird way of asking if I’m okay, Sticks, I’m not in the mood,” she says, smooshing her face into a pillow.
“Who said anything about you not being okay?” Sticks responds. “Unless you’re saying you’re not okay, and you are just some kind of duplicate...”
Amy kicks her feet about a bit and groans, “Forget I said anything.”
Unless Amy really is just herself, and this is a feelings matter. Sticks isn’t so good at those, because they’re supposed to be Amy’s area of expertise.
“Uh, there, there,” she says, awkwardly patting her friend on the back.
“Sticks…” Amy sighs. “Really, just leave it. You don’t have to push yourself for me.”
Except she does, because who else would she do that for? Plus, Sticks is in the a-plot, and they can’t have an a-plot where nothing happens.
So she tries to think what Amy would say to someone else in her position. “Do you… want to talk about your feelings?” stiffly, she manages.
It’s a despairful attempt really, because she sounded all robotic! Sticks isn’t a robot! If she’s a robot, then everything she knows is falling apart, because how can she know that she won’t be part of the robo-apocalypse!?
“Maybe to someone who listens,” Amy says bitterly.
Sticks does some deduction, because it can’t be her that Amy is talking about, because she’s listening right now. So what happened earlier? They all played volleyball for a little bit, ate lunch together, discovered that Soar the Eagle really was shameless in what he’d report on when he asked Sonic for a comment on Eggman’s lack of morning robot attack… It’s a slow day for everyone, clearly.
“Is this about Sonic?” she asks, thinking about how he hogged Soar’s broadcast earlier despite all five of them being there.
“What? No,” hastily, Amy denies. “No. He’s not— I mean, I’m not—” She looks up from the pillow with a troubled expression. “…Maybe.”
“Well, listen, Amy,” Sticks replies, ready to give some sage wisdom. “Most news reports are just sham cover ups that the Government pays for to hide the illegal experiments they’re performing. You don’t want Sonic to have mentioned you on one of those anyway!”
“It’s not about the broadcast, Sticks,” Amy groans into the pillow.
But has anything else happened recently? Sticks can’t think of much, because whatever Sonic is off doing, it’s not in this plot, so why would she know what it is?
“Oh, okay.” She tries really hard to think what Sonic has been doing recently which has been bothering her, and maybe Amy as well, by proxy. Well, he’s had Amy’s attention instead of Sticks, but why would that upset her? Amy likes Sonic better anyway. “Did he do something else? Has he been replaced by robots or aliens!?”
“No, he… he doesn’t need to have been replaced by robots or aliens to be a jerk, ” Amy returns, her voice hardening on the last part.
Well, yes, Sticks would agree with that, but that’s because she knows he’s her main rival for Amy’s affections, and she hasn’t found the right time to challenge him to any kind of one-on-one competition to prove who is the superior friend to Amy, and then who deserves the chance to be more than that to her! She’d like the chance to try single combat, but she isn’t sure how much Amy would approve of that.
So she wonders what Sonic has done to come across as a jerk to Amy specifically. After all… as much Sticks hates to admit it, isn’t Amy all goo-goo ga-ga over him?
“You can take him,” she shrugs.
Amy lifts the pillow up just to stare at her.
“I can… what?”
“In a fight,” Sticks clarifies. “If he’s bein’ a jerk, you could take him in a fight. You’ve got a giant hammer!”
This doesn’t have the intended effect, and Amy mumbles something unintelligible before going face down against the couch again.
“I don’t want to fight him. What’d even be the point…”
Sticks can think of at least three reasons off of the top of her head that she’d want to, and those aren’t even including delving into conspiracies where Sonic has been leading a secret double life this whole time, but topping that list is that she just really wants Amy to look at her the same way she looks at Sonic. Maybe it’s unreasonable, but Amy’s her favorite person, and she can’t help wanting that kind of attention.
It’s true that she’s usually someone who wants to avoid attention, but that’s because having the Government at her door would clearly spell the end of times, so she can’t have them tracking her down. Amy is different, though. Amy has just assured her that she isn’t a Government Agent, and today, Sticks is in the a-plot, so attention on her is unavoidable.
“I’d fight him,” idly, she notes.
“You… would?” slowly, Amy asks. “Why?”
“Because he upset you,” matter-of-factly, Sticks answers, because this is really the most obvious thing in the world; even in a world where it doesn’t pay to be one-hundred percent sure of things, Sticks is sure of this.
“Sticks, he didn’t…” Amy stops herself part way through, and carefully begins to sit up. She doesn’t meet Sticks’s eyes still, once her back is up against the cushions, and her feet are finally off of the couch, but her expression is clear and readable now. “I was being unfair, earlier. He didn’t do anything wrong. It’s all just me.”
Sticks has trouble believing that, because she knows which one of Sonic and Amy she’s more likely to blame for causing problems. It’s not that she doesn’t trust Sonic, but it’s just that she trusts Sonic to be doing sensible things about as much as she trusts robo-trash not to be plotting an uprising. So she doesn’t trust Sonic.
He can remain her friend because she thinks he’d be a good asset in an apocalypse setting, and because he can be fun, but he’s no Amy. Even if she does respect him for the couple of times he’s completely disappeared off the grid.
“Have you been talking to Knuckles too much recently or something?” she frowns.
“What? No… And it’s not Knuckles’s fault either!”
“I never said it was!” Sticks huffs. “But it’s just the way you’re talkin’, Amy. You sound like you must have lost braincells tryin’ to teach him to recognize the capitalist hellscape we live in or something!”
Not that she has any experience in that or anything.
“Lost braincells? Now come on, Sticks, that’s not very nice… You know Knuckles can’t help it…” Amy chides, falling back into normal mannerisms, even though Sticks knows those are tears she can just about see in Amy’s eyes.
She hates seeing Amy cry.
“But I’d rather he get abducted by aliens than you,” she explains.
“I don’t understand,” Amy responds.
Because Sticks is good at tracking down conspiracies about their world having transitioned from screen to page, or that the reason they get bad service at Meh Burger is because Dave has realized Sonic’s arms are the wrong color, but not this. Not feeling stuff. People usually say she’s too paranoid to correctly interpret the way people might be feeling.
“I’m not so good at this kind of thing,” she admits, “because it’s your thing! You always make us all feel better when we’re sad, and only you can do that!”
“I, uhm…” Amy pauses to wipe one of her eyes. “Aliens are sort of your thing, Sticks, so would you mind explaining how they… tie into this?”
“You’re my favorite here, so obviously I’d rather the rest of them get abducted by aliens than you.”
“I’m your favorite?” Amy repeats, turning to stare at her.
Both of her eyes are sort of shiny, and one of them still has visible tears hanging off of her eyelashes. Would it be weird if Sticks tried to dry it for her? She doesn’t exactly have a clean handkerchief on her or anything…
“Obviously,” Sticks replies. “You’re the one I named the village after. Who else did you think it would be?”
“Sticks, I… I don’t know what to say…” Amy says, a slight smile finally on her face.
“You could tell me what’s actually wrong,” she suggests. “Otherwise I’ll have to find another pin board and red yarn, and you already said you think my burrow’s too full at the moment.”
Amy laughs softly. “That’s true. It is getting very overloaded as is…”
“So what’s going on? I can still fight Sonic over this you know,” she pauses. “Or you could.”
“No, no, it’s fine… It’s like I said, it’s not actually his fault… I’m just… getting caught up in things,” Amy says, her tone abruptly growing more serious — but also softer, Sticks notes. “He’s just being himself. A free spirit and all that, but I…”
“But you?” Sticks prompts.
Amy stares at the floor. “I want just once for someone to tell me they need me. That— That I’m not just a nagging nuisance, or an overenthusiastic pain, because I’m someone people actually want to be around.”
Who has been making Amy feel like that!? Or… Oh no, has Sticks been contributing to that?
Sure, they all know that Amy likes to nag at them, but they all also know that she does that because she cares. And that she’s enthusiastic because she has such a kind heart — kinder than Sonic’s, in Sticks’s opinion, and he’s supposed to be the big hero around here!
But has she ever actually told Amy any of that? Has she ever actually told Amy that even if her presence can come across as a little intrusive sometimes, there’s a lot of times when Sticks really needs that, because no one else is willing to talk her down when she’s getting too up in her head worrying about the many soon-to-be apocalypses? And has she ever actually told Amy that she loves her enthusiasm, because even when she doesn’t get it, it’s nice to be around?
The two of them have such different interests, but no matter whether they’re in the a-plot or b-plot, Amy always makes time to compromise with her, even just a little, and Sticks always tries to do the same back, because it’s Amy!
“I want to be around you,” quickly, she says. “I don’t really like or trust a lotta people, because they’re a liability, but you… I know I can count on you, Amy.”
“You… You don’t have to say that just because it’s what’s bothering me…” Amy murmurs.
“No, really!” she insists. “We’d all fall apart without you! We all complain about your… feelings talks and stuff, but that’s just ‘cause you’re the only one who gets them! We’d never even think to do stuff like that, but you always remind us to take care of ourselves. You hear me out, even when you think I’m being totally crazy!”
“‘Crazy’ is a derogatory term,” seemingly instinctively, Amy returns. “You’re not crazy, Sticks… Paranoid, definitely, but just because I can’t understand what goes on up there for you, doesn’t mean I should think you’re crazy. Have the others been calling you that?”
Her tone is sharp as she finishes talking. It’s sort of funny how she’s the one who’s upset, and yet she still ends up trying to comfort Sticks anyway. That’s just who Amy is, and it’s part of the reason Amy’s her favorite.
“I dunno,” she says. “You think I spy on them in my free time?”
Amy winces, “See, the way you say that makes you sound like that’s only because you spy on other people instead…”
“I spy on you sometimes,” Sticks grins. “You’re always lookin’ out for me, so I hafta return the favor!”
“I—” Amy freezes up for a moment, but then bursts out laughing. “Oh, Sticks… That is sweet of you… But maybe next time you could, uhm, just ask to spend some time with me instead? I… I’d be happy to actually hear that you wanted to.”
“I only do it off-screen!” she protests. “But we’re in the a-plot right now, so now’s a great time!”
She wonders if this is the right moment to confess the full scope of her feelings for Amy. Maybe hearing quite how much Amy being her favorite actually means will help with all those bad thoughts about not being wanted, just like how Amy guides her through trying to think more rationally when she feels like she’s being watched (not by you all, but by something much more sinister) or when she’s sure there’s an alien chasing her down in the woods.
“I don’t know what that means,” Amy admits with a chuckle.
Sticks waves her off. “Don’t worry about it, sugarplum.” She remembers that even if Dream Catcher was the origin of that nickname, she always thought Sonic was talking about Amy when he used it. “So how about now? How about we hang out now?”
“Sugarplum?” Amy repeats, blushing slightly. “And… aren’t we already hanging out?”
“You said you wanted me to ask,” she explains. “I, erm… How about this?”
She should do it, Sticks decides. She should tell Amy exactly how much she needs her around, and beg her to please never get abducted by aliens, or replaced by robots, or revealed as a Government Agent.
“How about wha—“ Amy starts, but Sticks cuts her off by taking her hand. Sonic’s never gone this far before, has he? Because he’s either a coward, or a fool, and has never gone the extra mile for Amy like Sticks wants to.
“Amy, do you know what being my favorite person means?”
“It means you’ll fight Sonic for me?” Amy responds, sporting a small grin.
“Obviously, especially if he’s been hired by the Government to spy on us with Soar,” she nods. “But it also means that… you’d be my preferred partner in the upcoming robo-apocalypse. Or alien invasion! Or—“
“The Eggman attack that somehow hasn’t interrupted us yet?” Amy offers,
“Yes, exactly! That! And I like you a lot more than Sonic does, Amy! So if you ever… like me too, I’d want to be around you in that kind of way.” She doesn’t know the right words for this, but she keeps trying anyway. “The way you want to with Sonic.”
“Like you?” Amy tilts her head. “I already like you, Sticks, we’re BFFs! But I—“ The penny drops, and her eyes widen. “Oh, you mean…? Sticks, do you love-like me?”
“You’re my favorite person,” she reiterates.
Is this why she and Amy have gotten the a-plot? Sticks doesn’t want to get her hopes up, but Tails got the a-plot when his romantic intentions were working out, didn’t he?
It’s probably a little late to start a mating dance now, belatedly, she realizes, but Amy probably won’t need it. She’s perceptive like that.
“Sticks, I…” Abruptly, Amy grabs her other hand and blurts, “Do you want to be my girlfriend?”
Sticks blinks, and briefly considers the horrifying possibility that the reason this is going so well is because she’s been fooled the whole time by an alien playing a long-con, and Amy has been replaced.
“You’re asking me to be?” she affirms.
“Yes,” Amy nods. “If you… if you really want to be around me like that, then of course I do with you as well!”
“What about Sonic?” she checks, because although she doesn’t really want to, she will eliminate the competition, if it comes down to it.
“I love easily,” gently, Amy laughs.
Then perhaps she’ll let Sonic go for now. Unless Sticks finds out that he really has upset Amy. Or that that robot replica of him wasn’t a replica at all, and that he’s been a robot this whole time.
“Okay,” she smiles. “Then let’s hang out in a romantic sense!”
“You mean a date?”
These fancy folk, and all their fancy names for things…
“Sure,” Sticks agrees. “Do you… want to get lunch? Just the two of us?” That way, it’ll be different to a regular team meal. “You can choose where.”
Amy snorts, and finishes drying off her eyes, so that they’re finally tear-free. “There’s not exactly much choice in this village.”
“Hedgehog Village,” Sticks reminds her.
“Hedgehog Village’s Meh Burger, then?” suggests Amy.
Sticks likes this plan. It will give her an opportunity to demonstrate to Amy exactly what she’s willing to do to prove she likes being around Amy, because maybe this will finally be the day she decides to fight Dave the Intern, if he gets Amy’s order wrong… Well, she still prefers him to his robot coworker, but that’s hardly a high bar.
“It’ll make you feel better,” Sticks remarks. “So of course!”
Both smiling, she and Amy get up off of the couch. This has been a very successful conversation for both of them, and now Sticks knows that she should be outwardly praising Amy more! That’s just one more set of thoughts that she doesn’t have to worry about trying to keep stored up!
She’s just thinking about how she likes being in the a-plot, especially in written prose form, if it means she gets to get closer to Amy like this, when there’s a loud crash outside, followed by Eggman yelling commands at his robots. Sticks scowls out the window. (Only the second best one for spying on Amy through, though apparently she should just break and enter to see Amy personally, next time.)
“There’s our quota fulfilled,” Amy quips.
“Let’s get this done quickly, so we can get to Meh Burger before Dave has an excuse to shut it early,” Sticks huffs.
Amy smiles dreamily. “I like that idea.”