“Aww I’m really going to miss this place; that was a great vacation wasn’t It Amy?”
Cream was sitting on the floor of her and Amy’s room, packing up all the extra possessions and making sure she wouldn’t be leaving anything behind.
Tomorrow the group would be heading home after their week long vacation.
Amy, who was picking her clothes out for the next day smiled and agreed;
She would miss the sounds of the ocean, and the tropical jungle.
She would miss the garden and playing on the beach.
But most of all she would miss her friends.
The day after tomorrow she would be heading back home, to her parent’s castle.
Unfortunately everyone else lived in different parts of the country, so the chances of actually seeing any of her friends was very slim, and just as she was getting used to living with them all.
And with the post being as slow as it was, even if she wrote to them all, she knew that the closeness would fade away.
So she sadly packed up the things she wouldn’t be using the next day and she looked out at the ocean view she would miss as she became lost in the thoughts.
She had other reasons she dreaded going back home.
The suitors.
She grimaced.
Ever since the age of 15 she’d had to deal with random guys through out the country begging for her hand in marriage.
They sent her flowers.
They sent her letters.
They sent her chocolate in neat little boxes that were made to keep it from melting.
They sent her big hearts professing their undying love for her, and poems comparing her to every species of flower and bird known.
Some sent her presents; little trinkets that said ‘I love you’, and teddy bears with hearts and flowers alike.
And yet, 95% of the time, even when they swore on their father’s graves that their very hearts beated only for her, she had never met them a day in her life.
There were a couple of times when she had seen one in passing, but even then, it was simply a glance in their direction during a convention.
Or a slight wave during a parent’s meeting.
Or a polite hello during a dance.
But as much as she disliked the suitors and their persistent, constant cries for her attention, at least they would go to her to ask.
There were a couple of little snakes who’ve had the audacity to ask her parents to force her into engagement, with all sorts of offers.
A great many of the time they were the old Sirs who had gotten rich and well known through not one day of work of their own.
There were a few who tried to bribe them, promising to pay large sums of money.
There were others who tried to threaten to ruin their reputation.
But gladly her parents had always refused.
They had enough money, and the Rose reputation was one of the best.
Her father was a Baron after all; and he was famous around the country for how he had earned his title on the battle field, fighting behind King Maximilian Acorn himself.
So, for a while she had been safe.
But lately her parents had been acting somewhat suspicious.
Whenever they were ever finished with a meeting they would be talking quietly amongst themselves looking very serious, and as soon as she got close enough they would drop the conversation and pretend there was nothing wrong.
At first it hadn’t bothered her because she figured they were just muttering about, as would be usual, how the title of Lord and Sir was being given out so freely to people like the man who had just walked out. But until now they never actually cared weather or not she heard what they said about these men.
And after a while it became obvious that it had something to do with her.
Amy was interrupted in her musings as there was a knock at the door.
When she answered t it was Rouge.
“Hello girls, you wouldn’t have happened to see my hair brush have you?”
“Hmm, I can’t find that thing anywhere”
Not 5 minutes after she left. Knuckles came sneaking in looking around suspiciously and he grinned evilly at Rouge’s back. They wondered what he was laughing about until he brought a silver hair brush out from behind his back.
“Hey you two, if anyone asks, I was never in here.”
With that he ran out the room trying to be as quiet as possible, but being Knuckles he ran right into one of the tables in the hall.
“Ouch!”
Rouge turned to see him sprawled on the ground her brush next to him.
“Umm… opps.”
He scrambled to his feet grabbing the brush and sprinted down the hallways, Rouge right on his tail.
“OH NO SHE”S AFTER ME!!”
“COME BACK HERE WITH MY HAIR BRUSH YOU IDIOT!!”
“HEEEELPP”
“Go get him Rouge!” Sonic called after them as he popped his head out of the doorway out of one of the bed rooms.
“Shut up Sonic, they’re loud enough without you.”
Shadow was sitting crossed legged on the window seat his hands on his knees and eyes closed, meditating.
“Aww, why so grumpy Shads? Oh I know! Your just sad cuz you’re gonna miss me.”
Sonic flopped on him bed playing with a little glass ball.
He flipped it in the air a couple of times, and just as Shadow was going to say something, SMASH!
“Opps, When Tails gets back, it was all Knuckles fault.”
Shadow pinched his brow irritated, and got up to leave, heading to the quiet sanctuary of the roof.
All in all, the trip had been one of the more enjoyable ones he had been on with the rest of the group.
It was nice to get away every once in a while, and he groaned as he thought about the work that would have accumulated while he was gone.
He almost felt guilty about leaving Lawrence, the butler, and Madame Flitch in charge while he was off on holiday. Almost. But not quite.
He frowned.
Maybe he should visit his parents on the way back. He hadn’t seen them in a while; now that he had his own lands to operate he had little need to go to his old home.
Below him were still the muffled sounds of Rouge and Knuckles fighting. Playfully.
It wasn’t anything unusual: Rouge and Knuckles lived close enough to each other that they saw each other frequently; so it was natural that their previously friendly neighbor relationship would have changed over the years.
Tails and Cream were now outside poking with a stick at a dead slug that had stayed out too long after the rain.
He rolled his eyes and started at the clouds in the sky over head, just thinking to himself.
At least he and Amy were friendly again, he thought idly.
He wondered what she would do after they went home tomorrow.
Amy was the only one who lived as far away from everyone else.
Sonic and Sally lived only a town away from each other, a few towns away were Knuckles and Rouge, and Cream and Tails were in the same town as Sonic. And Shadow lived by himself; his castle was at a village at the coast, which was 3 days away from Castle Acorn itself.
Amy on the other hand lived farther inland towards the south, and it would take about a weeks travel to her home town.
She was probably very lonely out there.
And speak of the devil. As he thought this, the door under his feet opened, and out came the pink hedgehog he had just been thinking about.
He guessed that the balcony was something like her favorite spot.
Silently his slid down off the roof and landed on his feet on the ground, walking up behind her.
“Enjoying the view?”
She spun around like she had on the first day here, with a startled look.
“Stop doing that!” She said as he smirked down at her.
“I swear one of these days your going to give me a heart attack!”
“Oh relax. Nobody has ever died of being startled. I think” He added as an after thought.
Amy grinned and turned back to the ocean, and groaned.
“Why do we have to go back home? It’s so cool here!”
He grunted. Cool wouldn’t have been his word of choice, but he got the jist of what she was saying.
As he looked down at her back, he felt a very strange, very sudden urge to rub her arms. Maybe it was how the breeze played with the long pink ponytail she usually wore, but she almost looked cold.
He quirked a brow at himself, that was strange.
Determinedly he crossed his arms.
He refused to cause another rift in their… companionship.
He looked away from her suddenly aware of how the long spaghetti strapped dress showed off her figure so nicely.
He found it funny how this girl never dressed seductively, and yet she always managed to turn him on somehow.
He wondered if she was aware of what she caused in him. But she couldn’t have been; she didn’t even have to do anything to cause it.
They stood there for a while; Amy admiring the ocean view, Shadow admiring… a different sort of view.
Their observations were cut short though when they heard Sonic calling for everyone in the living room.
“Okay guys, since it’s our last night here together, we’re going to send our vacation off with a bang! So let’s go!”
Sonic led the way down the steps to the beach.
For the rest of the day they were goofing around on the beach.
They had a volley ball match which the boys won, but only by a little.
They had a huge sand ball fight with no clear winner because at some point Knuckles got fed up with being the main target of Sonic, and tied him up in a tree for the others to pelt him in sand.
They had a game of crab catching, which ended when Knuckles had to get one pried off his nose.
Tails caught some fish with a self made fishing rod, and was disappointed when he had to let one go; it had been too small.
They explored the cave that Amy had found, where they found the very back wall was made of different colored crystals, they weren’t valuable, but still pretty enough to make a souvenir.
Knuckles and Sonic had actually started to make their own moonshine with some of the tropical fruits they found; and put it in a container to bring home.
When the sun started to set they made a bond fire, and Amy taught Tails and Cream how to cook fish on it properly.
She had even prepared the crabs to the intense sadistic pleasure of Knuckles, who even decided to help after a while.
“Die you miserable crabs!!” He muttered scaring the others a little bit.
After a great meal of seafood and fruit they had a game of tag in the dark, their flashlights shining everywhere like the bat signal.
Amy and Sally set up a scavenger hunt for Cream and Tails, who was joined after a while by Sonic and Knuckles.
When the kids were finished with their scavenger hunt they started to carve out designs in the pieces of crystal they had gotten from the cave.
Cream made a heart the size of her palm for her mother, and Tails made a little snake.
The others joined in after that; Rouge made a parody of a Chaos Emerald which was pretty good despite the fact is was fake.
Knuckles attempted to make what he said was a dragon, but it looked more or less like a rock with gashes in it.
Sonic was just as unlucky: his was supposed to be a shoe.
Tails thought it looked like a lumpy potato; Cream said it could be a bunny. Rouge thought it was more like a fish; Knuckles thought it looked like poo, Sally was trying to be supportive but she agreed it looked like a potato.
“Hey Amy, what’s yours?” Sonic asked curiously as he attempted to fix his potato.
“It’s a lily!” She replied happily.
She showed him it happily, and he took it to examine it closer, but just as he was about to hand it over, Crack, he dropped it.
“Umm… opps… umm heh, heh, we can fix that.”
He barely had time to run.
“SONIC YOU JERK!”
“IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!!”
“YOU BROKE IT!”
“AHH! DON’T HIT ME WITH THAT!”
“DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH EFFORT THAT TOOK!”
“AH! IM SORRY!!”
Suddenly they were running around the beach, Amy trying to crush him with her Piko Mallet, and Sonic trying to dodge it.
“DON’T JUST STAND THERE YOU GUYS!! HELP ME!!!”
“Go get him Amy!” Knuckles shouted at them.
The others watched deeply amused.
Finally though, Amy had caught Sonic, who now laid sprawled out in the sand, a huge lump on his head and quite unconscious.
She got a few pats on the back by her amused friends, and Knuckles was doubled over laughing so hard it brought tears to his eyes.
“That was the best show ever!”
“Even you’re happy Shadow? I never thought I’d see the day.”
Rouge said mockingly.
“Rouge,” He said as he made a pleased face.
“I am trying to enjoy this glorious moment. Please do not ruin it for me.”
They laughed as Tails and Cream with the help of Knuckles buried the unconscious hedgehog up to his neck in sand.
They then watched as he stirred and looked up.
“Oh hey guys. Um… did you all get taller or something?”
They smirked.
“Noo~ But you might want to look down.”
He glanced at where his body was suppose to be and screamed for help.
“OMG!! WHAT THE HECK!! HELLLLP!!!”
They laughed evilly as he tried to dig himself up.
“Aww common guys this isn’t cool!”
Then his eyes widened and he turned his head, just as a wave came, pulled closer by the hide tied.
“AHH!! HELP IM GONNA DROWN!!”
It went over his head and fell back to the ocean; a bundle of seaweed had landed on his head.
“Hellp!” He shouted as another wave came.
“Think we should help him?” Amy said laughingly.
“Nah, I’ll give him a couple more waves first.”
“OH NO!! NOT THE CRABS!! AHHH!!”
Eventually they pulled out the drenched hedgehog he glared at them all angrily as he sat by the fire.
“You’re all a bunch of jerks...”
For the rest of the evening they hung outside enjoying the beach and each others company. Cream promised Amy she would write her as much as she could, earning herself a big hug.
Eventually though the day started to draw to a close as the moon went further over head.
Cream and Tails had fallen asleep at the table.
The group decided to call it a night since they would be leaving tomorrow.
After Amy had gotten Cream into bed she went down to the empty living room, and sat putting her legs up on the foot rest in front of her chair.
Today had been a great day.
She looked around.
She was still wide awake and she needed something to do.
She got herself up and slid open the door to the balcony. She was going to miss it here.
She sighed and stretched.
She hadn’t been in the garden for a while, so she made her way through the house and outside into the moon illuminated tropical paradise.
She leaned against the trunk of a tree staring up to the moonlit sky.
“Amy?”
She turned at the voice, unsurprised that it would be Shadow.
“Hey Shadow”
He sighed and shook his head almost laughingly.
“I might just have to get a restraining order on you.”
She looked affronted.
“Hey buster! I was here first.”
He smirked.
“Or were you? Last time I checked on our first day here YOU followed ME here.”
“Hey! It doesn’t count if it were days ago.”
“Yes it does.”
“No it doesn’t cuz that’s not fair!”
“And why would it not be fair Amy Rose?”
“Because you’re older, so I would never have a chance!”
“Ah yes, I’m older. You should respect your elders young Lady.”
She grounded her teeth at him. And He smirked evilly. Amy was so fun to tease.
“Hmph! Whatever!”
She stormed off childishly with her nose pointed to the air, and he followed amused.
After a while she stopped pretending to be annoyed as she came across a bunch of very pretty flowers.
She kneeled and bent over them watching how they had opened their pedals widely.
Then her attention was grabbed by a particular looking orange flower that was bigger than her head.
“Wow! Its soo pretty~.”
She smiled back at Shadow where he simply stood watching her.
He walked over as she examined the flower closely. He hadn’t even looked at it though.
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
She glanced up at him and then towards the canopy, the moonlight shined through in bright rays of soft light.
“You know,”
She said still looking at the trees,
“at first I thought that seeing you again would be a horrible idea.”
For a moment he felt horrible dropping feeling.. But what she said next completely erased it
“But… I’m glad I was wrong. I… I’m really going to miss you Shadow”
She smiled brightly at him and he just stared.
That was all he could do.
The feeling that had just gripped him had vanished and now in its place… was something… completely different from anything he had ever felt.
And impossible to ignore…
“Amy…?”
She turned and smiled at him brightly, and their eyes met.
And everything else slowed down.
He didn’t remember moving, but suddenly they were close together.
His hands found her cheeks, and he swept away the hair that intruded onto her face with his thumbs.
He was enchanted.
Her eyes widened…
His mind went blank…
“Shadow…?”
He blinked.
He sighed inwardly..
He couldn’t do this to her.
He wanted to kiss her right then, but he couldn’t.
For one thing, he still had that promise he had made to himself.
But another, and the more important:
They would be leaving tomorrow.
He had probably done it many times to other people, but Amy was a whole different story. He couldn’t lead her on anymore only to never see her again.
He slowly dropped his hands to his sides.
His eyes lingered on hers for a moment, and feeling very guilty he took her hand and led her back to the house.
There were several ways to describe Amy’s feelings.
Sadness…disappointment… rejection…
It had all happened so fast she didn’t have time to but on her brave face…
But as they got closer to the house she tried to put on what she hoped was a smile.
“I’ll see you later Shadow”
But as she turned to leave she was restrained as his arms came from behind her, and she was pulled into something like a hug.
“I’ll miss you Amy” Came his soft whisper.
And long after she had gotten in bed, and even as she laid there wide eyed and unable to sleep, it still played over and over again.
It was all she could think about for the rest of the night, and was the last thing she thought about before she was sucked into sleep.
