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Trip winced as the wound pulled at her scales. She gritted her teeth as visions of Fang and his gun swam in front of her eyes, hand gripping her shoulder. Cackles echoed in her mind. Everything spun around her. Walking away became hard when the pain pulsed between her fingers, dripping through the cracks as her scales inhaled and exhaled the injury, opening and closing like an eyelid.
Still, she walked away, ignoring the laughter, desperate to find anyone that wasn’t Fang or Dr. Robotnik. Anyone that wasn’t her family trapped in a dimension by the Doctor himself. A vision of pink replaced the vision of the jerboa, and the wound calmed against her hand.
If Trip could find Amy, that pink hedgehog she met not too long ago, she might have a chance.
The last time she saw her was at the Sungazers’ old temple. She blinked around, situating herself in her surroundings, but her feet had dragged her so far, she couldn’t recognize this part of the North Star Islands. It didn’t stop her from going in a random direction, and hoping to meet Amy along the way.
The wound had stopped bleeding eventually, but it caked around her hand. She couldn’t remove it without opening the injury, so Trip left it alone, gritting through the ache of her arm. The sun announced its last hour of light, painting the sky orange. Trip still hadn’t found that hedgehog.
It was only when pink turned to purple that she saw light up ahead. Like a fire Fang often built at night. North Star Islands barely saw the moon, thus her family never needed additional light when the sun gave its place to the moon, but she knew it meant help was up ahead.
Her legs cried in protest as she climbed up the hill. Her wound opened once more at the move of her arms, trying to hold her balance. Trip failed as she landed face flat on the ground, grunting in pain. Voices up ahead reached her ears, and a smile drew on her face.
Amy gasped at the sight of Trip laying on the ground, hand clutched on her arm. She ran towards her, hands hovering over the body with such uncertainty that it frightened her.
“Trip?” called Amy, eyes frantically looking all over the body for a sign of other injuries.
Trip only let out a groan, the scales clicking under her hand as she tightened her grip. Amy tried to take deep breaths, to look calm, but her lungs screaming for air proved her wrong every second she lingered over Trip’s body. She glanced at the campement she made, eyes on edge for any familiar blue streak or laughter of her friends. None came to her ears or vision, so she took a deep breath, and gently pushed Trip on her back.
Her new friend grunted at the impact; Amy couldn’t conceal her wince at the sound. It didn’t stop her from putting her arms underneath Trip’s armpits. Slowly and as gently as she could, she dragged her to the campfire. The uphill climb strained her muscles, protesting under the additional weight, but Amy only huffed a breath.
Trip needed her, and she was not letting her out of her sight.
Finally, she reached the fire, still warm despite the small flames. She placed Trip on her bedding, because if there’s one thing her adventures with Sonic taught her, it was his odd habits, especially him sleeping anywhere. Since Tails and Knuckles followed along, Amy found a way to incorporate her comfort during their adventures, and bedding was a must in all of them. It wasn’t like Sonic could refuse a semblance of a mattress, it beat sleeping on an uneven ground, according to him.
Not that it mattered at this instance as Trip hissed in pain. Amy rushed to the Tornado to find their medkit, and kneeled at her friend’s side. Her hands were hesitating once more as they approached the wound Trip was guarding with all her might. Another deep breath shook Amy out of her stupor, and gently placed her hand on top of Trip’s.
“Trip?”
Her head wiped away from Amy, brows furrowing deeper and whimpers bitten back through pursed lips. Amy grimaced.
“Trip — I’ll — I’m removing your hand, ok?”
No reply. She tried to pry those fingers away from the wound, but halted when Trip let out a pained cry. Amy examined the wound further. Caked blood held the fingers in place, like glue finally doing its job. Amy inhaled sharply, eyes shifting to Trip’s face.
“It’s… it’s gonna hurt. For a bit. But then you’ll feel all better!”
She went back to her task, carefully breaking the dried blood from the fingers first before peeling them away from the wound. Every cry Trip let out made Amy wince and hesitate. She didn’t want to hurt her friend more than she already was, but an infected injury would be worse.
Therefore, Amy’s resolve solidified the further she was in the process, managing to bring Trip’s cries as background noises, like the crackling fire and the singing insects around them. Finally, Trip’s hand no longer covered her wound, and while some blood seeped into the cracks of her golden scales, Amy could clean it at last.
She grabbed the disinfectant bottle, pouring it on the gauze Tails snatched from his visits to the continents. Gently, she patted it around the injury. Trip jerked away from the sting, eyes wide open as she practically stood up. Amy froze, hand still holding the gauze. Their gaze met, and if it weren’t from the fact that their faces were inches close to one another, Amy would’ve thought the coloration on Trip’s cheeks was a trick of the light from the fire.
Trip glanced back and forth between Amy’s face and her hand. She saw her swallow before landing on her face.
“It hurts.”
Amy laughed in bewilderment. She placed a hand on her mouth out of shock at her inappropriate reaction, eyes wide, but at Trip’s small chuckle, she finished her laugh.
“I just need to clean it up. Then we’ll bandage it, and it should be enough.”
Now with Trip’s full attention, Amy’s frantic heartbeat slowed. Consciousness was the sign of life Amy didn’t know she needed from Trip to feel confident in her lack of nursing ability. Trip still looked uncertain, so Amy sat close to her side, and patted the cracks filled with dried blood.
“Here, I’m cleaning your scales. It doesn’t look comfortable having blood like that. I know I would freak out if there was blood matting my fur.”
Trip’s shoulders relaxed slightly the more Amy babbled on. When she reached the wound, her shoulders snapped back to her ears as she hissed, tilting away from the gauze. Amy ignored it, and cleaned it as best she could with a jittering Sungazer under her care.
When no obvious dried blood surrounded Trip’s wound, Amy huffed in satisfaction, and rummaged the medkit for bandages long enough to cover the injury. As she searched, she realized she wasn’t certain if they had bandages that kept in mind scales instead of fur. Her hand found one long enough, and Amy decided to give it a try, at least, until Tails came back. His inventor knowledge stretched far beyond Amy’s skills, and varied for different situations.
She applied the bandage with a smile, looking back at Trip. Her hands stuttered in their movements at the look Trip gave her. A smile full of admiration, eyes soft at the edges, and posture so relaxed, it seemed like she would fall into Amy’s arms and nap in the embrace. Amy didn’t know how to respond. It was the look she read in so many books, it was the look she searched on Sonic’s face since she met him, and there it was. On Trip’s face.
Amy shook her head from these fantasies. Her feelings were for Sonic, she couldn’t have them for her new friend. Her new shy and clumsy friend.
“Thanks,” Trip said as she looked at the side, her smile still there on her face.
“My pleasure,” Amy replied, and took her hand in hers.
When Trip snapped her head back at the gesture, Amy chuckled. She cocooned that warm hand, stomach buzzing with feelings indecipherable.
“Will you stay? For the night?”
Trip stayed silent for a while, mesmerized by their linked hands. Her eyes met Amy’s, and her presence warmed her heart, despite the unnerving circumstances.
“Yeah,” she said, that smile back onto those lips.
Amy returned it. Maybe having Trip around wouldn’t be so bad.