Lady Alicia sat patiently on the window seat of her daughter’s room, glancing ever so often towards the dressing room door.
“Are you sure you don’t need some help sweetie?”
Amy’s muffled voice burst from the dressing room, “I got it!” and a sigh escaped from her mother‘s lips..
“Let’s just hope you don’t tear it or something.”
“I’m not mom!”
“Are you sure you can handle tying it up?”
“Mom, please, stop being so fussy!”
Amy flipped her hair over her shoulder and turned her back to the mirror as she attempted to tie up the back of her wedding dress. She frowned with concentration and gave the ribbons a few tugs. This was harder than she thought.
She stuck her tongue out in concentration, twisting her arms backwards and sideways to reach them. She was just about to call for her mother but instead the door to her dressing room opened and she smiled at the newcomer.
“Hey Cream! A little help here please?”
“Sure, Amy!”
The younger girl pulled lightly at the ribbons as the older girl held her hair up.
“Your mom sure looks stressed.”
Looking over her shoulder to the closed door, Cream giggled.
“You’re telling ME!” Amy replied with a sniff. “but I wouldn’t worry too much. She always gets like this before a big event, then she finally figures out nothing is wrong once it’s started.”
“Hmm. There you go!”
“Ah~, Thank you Cream!”
Amy swirled around in front of the mirror, admiring the dress.
“You know, I really do like this one.” Amy turned to her younger friend who’d sat herself down on the small bench adjacent to the mirror, kicking her legs gently as they dangled off the edge.
Cream beamed up at Amy.
“I like it too! That other one looked rather awkward…”
“Yea, and it was itchy too. All that lace.”
Amy giggled to her self and swished the hem of her skirts happily.
“Hmph! Wearing a dress this gorgeous might actually be worth all the trouble this whole thing has caused.” She looked back at her friend mischievously. “don’t you think?”
Cream took on a depressed look.
“Umm. If you say so.”
Amy spat her tongue out at the rabbit’s reflection in the mirror just as the dressing room door opened again.”
Alicia sighed at her daughter.
“Amy, please behave yourself. The last thing we need right now is the bride acting like a child.”
“Yeah, yeah, mom. What do you think of the dress though, isn’t it fabulous?”
Amy twirled around, showing off the poofy skirts.
“You look lovely dear.” She smiled and walked up to stand beside her daughter. “Now we just have to decide on the jewelry. And you ARE wearing your hair out, right?”
Amy looked at her mother quizzically.
“Hmm, I don’t know how I want my hair. Sheryl and I were going to experiment later”
“Fine, just don’t do anything too outlandish okay? It’s a wedding, not a circus act.”
“Yes mom,”
Amy winked over to Cream behind her mother’s back, and Alicia smiled at their reflections before turning on her heel and waling off, pausing only to speak to the girls.
“Be careful while you take that off Amy. Cream, can you make sure she doesn’t damage the dress she seems to love so much?”
“Yes Ma’am!”
Cream jumped off the bench and began untying the neat little bows of ribbon on the back of her friend’s dress.
“So, are you feeling better about the wedding? You had me worried for a few days.”
Amy grinned sheepishly. Cream and her family had arrived three days ago, on the eve of her birthday to help prepare for the wedding. As the flower girl, Cream spent a lot of her time with Amy while the adults focused on the logistics of planning a wedding.
For the first few days Amy was miffed not only about the event itself, but also for being excluded from the planning of such an important event in her life. She got over it eventually, however.
Especially when she noticed how aggravating it was for her parents..
“Nah, don’t worry about it.” She waved it off and relaxed as the ribbons down her back were loosened.
“Are you sure Amy?”
Cream walked back over to the bench and turned around to give Amy some privacy.
“Yup! I’m sure! I’m not the type to mope about something for so long”
Amy grinned, and finished changing so the two could go and get some lunch.
As they walked down the halls Amy looked around her home, feeling nostalgic as her eyes swept the ornaments and items on the walls. Although she was feeling better about it all, her heart retched at the though of having to say goodbye.
Amy glanced out the window into the side courtyard that blended into her family’s garden. She could see the heads of her many servants setting up for the big day below. At first she’d thought an apology was in order for all the work they had to do, but it seemed that the workers were actually excited about her wedding.
While they prepared for the arrival of over a hundred guests, they gossiped and talked happily about how “the young lady had finally grown up!”, and just how happy they were for her. Just the other day Amy had happened to hear a couple of her maids whispering about how handsome her soon to be was. Amy had to turn her face away from her younger friend to hide the blushing that went to her cheeks.
~~~~~~~~~
Clang… Clang … Clang … Clang … Clang … Clang…
If Black Doom had a mouth, he would more than likely be smirking at that moment.
He floated above the high pathways of his once Mobian fortress, looking out for miles around. The noise of metal hammers banging against the steel swords of his men was music to his ears.
“Ah, what a wonderful day for doom and destruction.” He mumbled darkly. He turned away from his view of the setting sun that cast the earth in a blood red light, and instead looked down into his courtyard. Below his Black Army was preparing armor and weapons for battle. Black Doom liked to be roughly prepared before beginning a conquest, and had instructed his army to begin preparing months before he had any intention of making a move.
On one side of the court his men were hammering away, turning red hot steel into useful instruments of war: chains, swords, spearheads, kludges, and shields. In the center other workers were bringing about large metallic carts, perfectly organized, to away the newly formed pieces before disappearing behind the wooden doors inside the castle. On the inside of his castle the Black Arms soldiers were busy putting finishing touches on the weapons, also testing them out and deeming them worthy of a fight. If they were found to be unsatisfactory, they would be thrown right into a large cauldron of melted metal that took up most of the room from the center, and the metal would leak into smaller channels that went outside to the first group of Black Arms workers. If the weapon was found to be useful, another set of cart wielders rolled them further into the castle to the storage rooms, where another group of workers set to sorting out the instruments in organized sections.
Everything was organized, and smooth running. Just the way Black Doom liked it.
The alien leader not turned to the other side of his courtyard where a platoon of soldier were training. Every hour of so the groups would rotate so a new batch of his workers would concentrate on their strength and skill while the old soldiers would focus on preparing the stock of armaments. His eyes narrowed in on the group checking his fighters for any blemishes in their forms or exercises. At the moment they were practicing with their long swords, striking as one uniform group at wooden beams that jutted from the ground.
His eyes focused in momentarily on every move of each black arms alien, waiting, almost daring one of them to make a false move. And almost as if his thoughts had turned into reality, one of the soldiers almost dropped their sword! In a swift momentary pause the swords had fumbled out of their hand and dropped no more than inch before it was picked up out of midair, but Black Doom had seen it.
In a flash he brought back his hand and the next moment his hand was aimed forward, frozen right from where he’d shot his sharp blast of chaos energy. His took on a pleased look at the now dead soldier and turned his back to let the platoon pause in the training to make room for a couple of other workers to retrieve the body.
The other soldiers had known better than react to the death of their comrade, lest Black Doom turned his wrath on them. Instead they watched silently as the body was taken away before being ordered to continue again.
Looking quite satisfied Black Doom faced the direction of the sun and closed his eyes. His ever present frown deepened in concentration until he finally established a link to his spy behind enemy lines.
The Black Eye blinked open, and swiveled around as it found it’s surroundings. The squid was now latched onto the ceiling of King Maximillian’s study, which form the outside was the highest of the castle towers. It was night time over the Kingdom of Acorn, so the study was empty of other people. Moonlight shone though the circular room, making a brilliant white beam right down the middle of the carpet. The Black Arms squid let go of the wall it was stuck to, and swam through the air the door. However, just as Black Doom’s eye was about to squeeze under the doorway, it was alerted to the sound of footsteps.
The echidna maid swung open the massive wooden door and looked around as the feeling of being watched crept over her. After a moment though she shrugged and moved into the room with her duster at hand.
The Black Eye blinked open from over the doorway , and in a swift movement swung around the door post and swam hurriedly down the hall. Aside from the flickering of the torches along the walls, the Castle was deathly quiet.
‘How fitting.’ Black Doom thought evilly. Although the situation was not quite ready for a homicide yet, he felt it almost amusing how the soon to be assassin had crept so stealthily in the Mobian King’s home that even months later he had still not been found! He could have gotten away with the kings murder literally months ago! But now was not the time. He still need to get information, information that could be dire for his plans of conquest to work.
Mentally he guided his spy through the castle hallways relatively easily the only moments of risk had come from unobservant wanderers who were dodged without overlong problems. Finally Doom’s eyes found the destination he’d been searching for. His eye was floating in front of a great ornamented door that he knew led to the King and his advisor’s stock room. Only, this room didn’t hold just anything objects of sentiment. This room just happened to hold the largest amount of information in another other Mobian domain. The Black arms squid slid easily under the doorway and swam through the air towards some of the most recently updated records of Mobian activity. The room was much longer than one would think standing form outside, filed with shelves placed back to back and running parallel to the doorway. After passing most of the shelves the squid turned a corner and moved to a set of shelves that were decked with red emblems. This was the area where the recordings of each fief and county’s populations. The particular shelf it was now browsing help information from over the last few decades including this year’s record. With this information Black Doom could find out and prepare for the number of Mobian soldiers his army would be facing. One Mobian soldier would be able to take out at least five of his own, and at the moment Black Doom’s army was already outnumbered. Now he needed to find out exactly how much, or else he would not be able to determine how long of a spawning period he would need before this war was started.
The squid’s eyes picked up another document, and the eyeball shuddered nearly out it’s socket as it quickly skimmed the writing on it.
“Finally” Black Doom mumbled before focusing again on his pet.
‘Go back to the King’s study and await further instruction’
The Black eye flickered it’s tentacles in a formal salute before gliding stealth fully under the door and down the hallway to it’s previous resting place.
Black Doom took a long deep breath and retracted him concentration back to his own body. He opened his eyes, and frowned towards the moonlit sky. Angrily he scolded himself for not having put this into thought before. The Mobian population now outnumbered his own by 5. It would take months of constant spawning in order to break even, and that was if the enemy population stayed constant.
“Damn it!” He muttered.
Suddenly he began to regret his killing from earlier. Right now he needed all the manpower he could get…
Maybe it was time that he called for some reinforcements…
Black Doom’s eyes flickered gleefully now at the thought of who he would be contacting.
Silently he sent an mental message to one of the nearby guards on duty at the other end of the pathway.
‘Sent out a message at once to that bumbling buffoon of a doctor. Tell him that Black Doom has a proposition for him.’
The Guard made a salute and ran off to fulfill his master’s commands, and Black Doom looked back out on the land.
Yes, the Mobians had gotten lucky this time, something as tediously petty as population was stopping his plans for the moment. However, soon the alien leader would be clear to begin in his greatest ambition: conquering the world.
~~~~~~~~
“Hey Sonic! Look at that!”
Tails pointed excitedly out the window of the carriage, turning back to look at his older “brother”.
Sonic, laying with his leg propped on opposite bench with his arms behind his head, opened an eye to look the kitzune.
“What is it Tails?”
“Look at it Sonic! It’s a black tailed Trogo!”
“It’s a what?!”
Sonic hopped up and looked over Tail’s shoulder, a look of excitement on his face. That is until he realized just what a black tailed Trogo is.
“Seriously Tails? You got me excited … over a bird?”
“But Sonic! It’s not just ANY bird! This bird is very rare and endangered!”
“Sigh.” Sonic stopped himself from commenting on what else would be endangered if his nap was interrupted again before poking his head out the front window to talk to the driver, his uncle, Sir Charles.
“Hey, Uncle Chuck, when are we gonna get there?”
“Sorry Sony-boy! We wont get there for another 6 hours or so.”
“Ugh! Can’t I just run there? Please?”
“Sorry Sony, You heard your parents.”
Uncle Chuck continued to give Sonic the same speech his parents had given him earlier, and Sonic decided now was a good time to finish his nap.
The only thing keeping him from jumping outside the window right now was one, how Amy would feel if he didn’t show up, and two, as the best man this was the perfect opportunity to bug Shadow. A grin crept on his face at the thought.
It wasn’t a malicious type of pleasure or anything; Sonic would do the same thing to ANY of his friends. Especially Knuckles.
Sonic leaned back in his seat, ignoring another shout of surprise from Tails, as nostalgic thoughts of his old friends filled his mind.
~~~~~~~~~
“Hey, Amy, I see them!”
“Eh?” Amy walked over to the window and looked down to the road where a familiar cart was coming into view.
“You’re right. It’s them.” Amy sighed and looked to the younger girl. “How do I look?”
Amy fiddled with her partly braided hair and then played with the bow on the front of her dress. The braids were set into one large coil over her shoulder while her bangs stuck out of her forehead.
“You look fine Amy! Lets go!”
Cream grabbed Amy’s hand and guided her towards the door, Amy giving her room a backwards glance.
As the two walked down the hallway they spotted their parents in the grand hall. Lady Vanilla was talking cheerfully with Lady Alicia while Sir Rodney was attempting to fix his tie in one of the mirrors.
“Ah, there you two are” He announced as they got down the stairs. “Are you ready?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be”
Amy played lightly with the rim of her glove, unsure exactly how she was feeling about meeting her future husband again. It annoyed her how something that was obviously so meaningless to HIM, had effected her. His random acts of affection only jolted what she had decided was the truth in their relationship; it was built on nothing more than physical attraction. They had no reason to feel anything more, nor did they… or, at least, he didn’t.
She thought.
Her family filed out into the court yard when the carriage finally stopped, and as the door swung open, Amy felt an annoyingly strange flutter in her chest as her fiancé slowly moved out of the dark interior and into the sunlight followed by his mother. After nodding a thanks to their driver the two black hedgehogs approached, Lady Jasmine with a less than happy look on her face, and Shadow glancing over his shoulder as though expecting something. Anyone could tell that there was something wrong.
“Hello you guys!” Jasmine called politely as she and Alicia shared a hug.
“What’s wrong with you?” Alicia studied her friend’s face worriedly.
Lady Jasmine sighed and messaged her forehead.
“I owe you an apology in advanced for this, but you remember Malcolm’s mother correct?”
“Uh oh.” Alicia and her husband gave each other a look.
But it was as if on cue that a second carriage appeared down the road with a large boom, and it shot down the road with a cloud of dusk billowing behind it. Fearfully Cream grabbed onto Amy’s skirts as they all stared at the vehicle that skied to a halt in form of the Rose’s manor.
“What the heck…” Amy mumbled.
SLAM!
The onlookers jumped in surprise as the door swung open and slowly a black knee-high boot arose from the darkness and lowered to the pavement, followed by the face and the rest of the body of a lady hedgehog. Silently the hedgehog scanned the group in front of her, and she strutted towards them silently.
Her black fur left Amy with no mistake of who she was related to, and her suspicions were confirmed as Sir Malcolm jumped down from he carriage and sent the driver away with a thank you.
Now Amy knew why the elders looked so scared; even Shadow was acting stiffer than usual. This lady, whatever her name was, was very intimidating. She walked with the air of a woman who meant business, and her demeanor was of someone who could cut you down and make you inferior with just a look.
As Rebecca walked towards the family, she smirked inwardly at the effect she was having. Her daughter in law was giving her a look of intense dislike, while the Roses had the air of one bracing themselves for an attack. There were two female rabbits were she did not know, but the older one who was obviously the mother was biting her finger uncertainly. Her grandson even was more on edge.
For a quick moment she was beginning to feel a strong sort of satisfaction, but it quickly died away as she looked over to the pink hedgehog. Amy smiled up at the older hedgehog innocently, but even behind her smile she was rebelliously amused. Rebecca probably wasn’t quite as bad as she looked. Right?
“Well, well, well, hello Rose family.” Rebecca stopped and sneered at them all, earning a, angry scowl from Jasmine. “And hello to you too Jasmine; You’re looking sour as usual”
She giggled evilly as Jasmine glared even harder and imaginary fire enveloped her person.
“And you’re just as ill-tempered as always. Anyway, I’m so sorry for dropping in unannounced; but you know I couldn’t miss my darling Grandson’s wedding!”
“Oh no! It’s perfectly alright! Isn’t it honey?” Alicia elbowed her husband in the arm to make him agree.
“Hmm. You’re too kind.” A smirk appeared on her face.
“Anyway, where IS this bride-to-be that I’ve been hearing so much about?” She looked around indifferently although she already had an idea who it was. “You haven’t locked her away have you?”
“A-actually, she’s right here.” Sir Albert grinned nervously and pulled her forward by the arm.
“So this is her, eh?”
Rebecca set the younger hedgehog with a full-fledged stare that left Amy feeling uncomfortable. Uncertainly Amy wondered if there was something wrong with her appearance from the look that was increasing in disapproval, and she felt her face redden slightly. Maybe she should have spent more time in he mirror?
She felt her quills starting to tense up, as they often did when Amy was exposed to an uncomfortable situation. It didn’t matter whether she was angry, sad, or simply excited; her fur ALWAYS did that, and unconsciously her eyes flickered up to her bangs giving her examiner a reason to smirk.
“Hmph. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you with such an important discussion Jasmine.” Rebecca straightened her back and looked back to her daughter in law evilly. The air was filled with a sudden tension, and Amy paused in the process of fixing her bangs. All eyes were not on the black female hedgehog.
“I see you don’t know what I’m talking about. I’ll break it down for you”
Rebecca turned to her newest victim maliciously, and cold eyes met with green confused ones.
“Her ears are too big, her shoulders are too brood, and she’s much too skinny.” She shrugged and turned to walk a bit away from the pink hedgehog. “I don’t know HOW you could have thought this little girl was anywhere NEAR expectable.” she sighed “Ah well. Better luck next time.”
She had walked away from the silent group only two feet when someone called her back.
“…Is that what you REALLY think about me?”
The pink hedgehog’s voice didn’t surprise Rebecca, but the tone sure did.
“Why yes. I think you are unfit to be accepted into such a distinguished family. Good day.”
“…Well, you know what…”
Rebecca halted as the voice suddenly boomed from behind her
“YOU’RE NOTHING BUT AN UGLY OLD HAG ANYWAY!”
Rebecca spun around on her heel and stalked up to the younger one while looks of surprise surrounded the two females.
“What did you just say?!”
“I said that you are an UGLY. OLD. HAG!!”
Amy’s smug face drew closure to the contender’s as the older woman lividly glared down at her. Nobody had ever stood up to her like this before…
“KNOBBY ANKLES!” She yelled harshly.
“YELLOW TEETH!” Amy screamed.
“FLAT-CHESTED!!”
“WRINKLE FACE!!”
“TOMATO CHEEKS!!”
“DOG BREATHED PANCAKE FLIPPER!!”
“…..What?….”
“LAME INSULT BUT NONETHELESS YOU’RE CRAZY AND YOUR BRETAH STINKS!”
Fuming with both embarrassment and spite Amy turned away from the rest of the group and stomped away with as much grace as one can get from clomping around angrily.
“If anyone IMPORTANT needs me, I’ll be in my garden, AWAY from that crazy old witch! I don’t have to take this!” Her sentence dropped off into a grumble as she turned the corner and left the rest of her family staring after her in silence.
The first person to recover was Sir Rodney, who noticed Rebecca’s expression, and turned to his mother beside him.
“Err. I take it you had fun then?”
“Actually, Yes, I really did.”
“So you admit that you have fun making people feel miserable?”
“Stop being so dramatic! I HARDLY made THAT girl’s life miserable.” She shrugged. “Actually, I think I had no effect on her what so ever, but that‘s what makes it fun”
A grin stretched out on her face for perhaps the first time in years.
“Hmph. You’re only half correct actually” Shadow shook his head. “You made her angry enough.”
He looked over his shoulder in the direction she’d disappeared and sighed. “I’d better go check on her before she hurts somebody.”
He glided across the courtyard while Vanilla brought Cream inside, leaving the other’s to themselves. Rebecca turned to the remaining group.
“I do believe I stand corrected about your daughter, Alicia and Albert.”
“Really? What made you change your mind?” Albert scratched at his head completely bewildered.
“That girl’s got moxy. Not many people are willing to stand up to ME anymore. And, heh! ‘Dog breathed pancake flipper?’ that was funny.”
She turned towards the mansion and wrapped and arm in Alicia’s.
“Now, come and show me around, would you darling?”
The two walked, and pulled, away, leaving Albert, Rodney, and Jasmine to follow after them.
~~~~
“Hmph!”
Amy plopped down in the grass and stared up at the rays of light flitting through shaded barrier of the tree leaves. Her arms and legs stretched out on the cool greenery and her hands pulled at the clumps of grass at her finger tips. Her lower lip poked out as she frowned.
“Stupid old hag” she muttered.
She shut her eyes and blocked out the angry thoughts, the majority having to do with pounding the old woman into mush, and she listened to the waterfalls of the water fountain close by. She wondered how the fountain would look when it was lit up for her wedding.
She felt safe enough from intrusion at that moment, her hiding place was a small dead end in the maze of hedges hidden by one of the fountains comparatively smaller than the main one that decorated her parent’s garden, and shaded by a decently aged tree. She had stumbled upon the natural room only a few days ago after running away her mother and the new high heeled shoes she was suppose to be trying on. Fortunately those god-forsaken shoes had decided to snag on a rock close to the edge of the pavement, otherwise the results would have been much more painful.
The pink hedgehog stretched, content with the amount of space offered, and wondered about what the rest of the day would be like. Shadow’s grandmother had ruined the peaceful mood she had been forcing herself into, and thanks to that, she wasn’t sure how she was going to show her face after embarrassing herself in front of everyone. She could just hear the maids talking now…
She groaned inwardly as she thought over her foolish behavior, although she wasn’t sure what was causing her to care. At the time she had felt satisfied at having insulted the malicious granny, but now looking over it, she had instead reacted …childishly.
She sighed and rolled over, deciding to put whatever apology she’d had in mind way to the back of it.
She’d jumped up to her feet and spun around to go inside, but as her face turned to the entrance of her secret ‘room’ she was so shocked that she fell back to the ground again.
Somehow without her realizing it, Shadow had snuck up on her. He was now leaning quietly against one of the hedges looking off at the house with a distant look in his eyes.
But even as Amy realized what it was that had spooked her, she still ended up gasping as her heart recovered from shock.
“Wah? Shadow!?”
Disturbed from his thoughts, the dark male looked over the female with a raised brow.
“What the-, What are you-…”
A smirk flashed across his face as Amy sat there clutching the skirts of her dress in a flustered manner while she tried to utter out the correct phrase she wanted, and as Amy saw the smirk playing on his face, her shock disappeared and was replaced by embarrassed agitation.
“Where the HECK did YOU come from!”
Shadow gave a sigh, and pushed off from the wall.
“You’re not very observant are you? I’m sure anyone from a few miles noticed me walking over here.”
Amy jumped to her feet and pouted.
“Hmph! Nobody asked you if I were observant or not. Leave me alone why don’t you!”
“As you wish.”
Shadow shrugged and turned away, leaving Amy staring after him in surprise, her arms still crossed. She had half expected him to bother her even more. Rather, she had COMPLETELY expected her fiancé to continue bothering her. That was the usual thing that happened anyway.
“Hmph. Fine.”
She turned her cheek at the black hedgehog’s retreating back, unable to stop herself looking after him out the corner of her eye. She had half a mind to go and follow him: how dare he completely skip over their normal meeting ritual and actually listen to her orders to go away!
Frowning she looked about her miniature paradise and found that she was suddenly bored of it. After all, just sitting around wasn’t as much fun as moving around having an adventure.
She looked back to the other hedgehog who was getting closer to the main path of the maze.
‘What’s he doing anyway?’
Curiously she watched as her fiancé moved past the dirt walkway she had expected him to take and stopped in front of one of the even larger trees to stare into it’s shaded depths. He walked around the trunk of the monster plant once before stopping again at it’s side and to Amy’s surprise he crouched down suddenly and made a long, unnaturally high, jump and disappeared behind the leaves of the overgrown shrub.
“What the?”
She looked around as if expecting Shadow to appear somewhere else. Maybe it had been a trick of the eyes that made her think for a moment that the male hedgehog had just JUMPED up a tree. However, even as she looked she could tell that he wasn’t around.
Cautiously Amy approached the green and brown mass and as she walked under it she scanned the umbrella of leaves and branches, but even so she couldn’t see the black and red hedgehog anywhere in the green. Now she began to feel embarrassed, and she looked back down to scan the rest of the backyard again.
‘Where the heck did he go?’
Once more she looked up to the canopy and still saw nothing… that is until she took a step back, and suddenly he appeared in her vision as he ‘moved’ into a conveniently placed beam of light.
“Oh…”
Feeling foolish at how long it had taken her to notice him, Amy felt her sweat drop;
Maybe he’d been right about how observant she was…
Shadow was leaning his back on the tree trunk, one leg dangling, the other resting on the branch supporting him as he stared up at the sky through the tree leaves uninhibitedly. He kept his gaze up until a slight rustling sound distracted him, making him turn his head. However he was completely unsurprised as the face of his future wife popped out from behind the moving tree branch.
“Hi!”
Amy smiled cheerfully as if expecting one in return, but Shadow only nodded.
“Whatcha doin?”
“Nothing” he answered solemnly.
“What type of nothing?”
“The type people do?”
He raised a brow and shrugged noncommittally. Amy frowned, swaying as alight breeze hit the branch she was standing on and the other limbs she was holding herself up with.
“How could people do it if they’re doing nothing?”
“The same way I’m doing now.”
He closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest as if to close the conversation however if Amy wanted to talk, she was going to weather he liked it or not!
“Nice weather today huh?”
“Hmph.”
Although Shadow could agree with this, it was unsurprising as the weather where the Rose family lived was ALWAYS nice. There was also the fact that home was usually better. Not that she would know; they had never really discussed where Shadow lived in any of their previous conversations.
“Is it like this where you live?”
Shadow glanced at her face. Amy was now leaning her head and arms on another branch between them, looking off in the distance happily. She always became more relaxed when she was talking to somebody; a complete people person. He almost rolled his eyes, but consciously stopped himself. The two of them were almost exact opposites in that regard. He disliked being around other people, and he disliked conversation… depending on who it was admittedly.
“It’s. Different.”
“Different how?”
She was looking at him again. Shadow averted his eyes to a rather attention grabbing leaf overhead.
“It’s. Sunnier.”
“Sunnier how?”
He shrugged, feeling the conversation going nowhere.
“Oh come on~. That’s not an answer!”
“Tch! That doesn’t NEED an answer.”
“So?”
“Why waste my breath for something that doesn’t need an answer?”
“Because it’s fun! And it keeps me from getting bored. You don’t want me to die of boredom do you?”
“…”
She puffed her cheeks haughtily and her fists went to her hips.
“You jerk!”
“What? I didn’t say ‘yes‘.”
“But you didn’t say ‘No’ either! Jerk!”
Shadow met Amy’s (mock) glare with a smirk, ready to finish their debate, but before he had been given the chance they were interrupted by a very familiar voice below.
“Aww! Look at the lovely couple guys!”
Amy beamed down to the blue hedgehog amongst their other friends; Rouge, Knuckles, Tails, and Cream behind him.
“Sonic!”
“Hey’a Ames; Sorry to ruin your moment, but I DO have to watch out for THAT guy over there. Ain’t that right faker?”
“Shove it HEDGEHOG!”
“Tsk tsk tsk! It THAT any way to treat your best man? Whatever are we going to do with you?” He shook his head. “Oh, I know! How about a little song, eh Shadow?”
“…You wouldn’t dare.!”
“Wouldn’t I??” He smirked up at the black hedgehog and cleared his throat mischievously. “ SHADOW AND AMY SITTING INA TREE-!!”
“DAMMIT FAKER!!”
Shadow jumped out of the tree top like a bullet, and the two supersonic hedgehogs shot off in two blasts of sound; one hedgehog intent of violence and the other laughing his head off.
The others watched in amusement before Rouge called to Amy in her tree.
“hey girlie! Come down here before we lose the bride! I didn’t get my dress for a funeral you know.”
“Fine~”
Amy slid down the tree trunk happily and skipped over to her friends, grabbing Tails especially into a big hug.
“I’m glad you all could make it! How was the trip you guys?”
“Not too bad, but Bat girl over here was hogging the carriage.” Knuckles grinned and gave a thumbs up to the pink hedgie.
“Is THAT why you were screaming so much when we passed you?” Sonic appeared at Amy’s side just in time for a miniature glomping from his old friend.
“Nah. THAT was for what she was trying to DO to me!”
Rouge rolled her eyes as Knuckles shivered as Amy and Sonic grinned at them knowingly. Tails and Cream however looked a bit confused.
“What’d she try to do to you?”
“It was HORRIBLE Sonic! She tried to-to get me into- A TIE!!!”
“It wasn’t THAT bad you big baby!” Rouge cut in humorously.
“Oh yes it was!”
“Hey Sonic, where’s Shadow?” Amy asked the hedgehog leaning on her shoulder as the Bat and Echidna argued.
“Ah, he’s over the-… oh. Hold that thought Ames.”
In a flash of blue Sonic was gone, only to be followed by another flash of black.
“Those two…”
“Yea, they’re idiots aren’t they?”
The voice from above startled everyone in the group (everyone besides the tussling hedgehogs in the background).
After all, who wouldn’t be startled if a strange silver-furred hedgehog were to appear, floating over your head.
“Silver! You’re here too!”
As the hedgehog landed in front of the girl he was promptly almost knocked off his feet with another glomping.
“Guys, this is Silver! He’s an old friend of mine!”
He gave a shy wave towards the others.
“Nice meeting you all.”
“And you also remember Sonic right?”
The blue hedgehog had now appeared as a flash again, followed very closely by the black and red blur of Shadow.
“Yea, and Shadow too.”
Silver sighed as the older male finally caught up with the blue one and now commenced in a fierce and childish brawl in the grass rolling around and throwing punches like kids on a playground.
“Think we should stop them?”
“Umm… yeah. Before they actually hurt each other” He grinned at Amy again as they approached slowly. “I’ll take care of Sonic so you can get your hubby~”
He winced painfully as Amy shot a VERY hard punch to his arm however.
“Shut up Silver.” She replied curtly.
“Heh. Isn’t this so cute though?” Rouge said humorously as she watched Silver and Amy try to pry away the boys.
“What? Sonic and Shadow fighting?”
“No! Although it IS funny. Anyway, I’m talking about Amy and Shadow getting married! You know, I never thought Shadow would be the type to agree to something like this.”
“Well. He doesn’t really have much of a choice does he? It’s his parents who set this up right? And you know his mother…” The bat and Echidna shivered uncomfortably while Tails and Cream laughed at Sonic and Shadow. Silver had to resort to using his telekinetic powers to hold Sonic in a bubble. He was sitting with crossed arms looking pouty while Shadow, who was on the ground being berated by Amy as he glared up at the trapped hedgehog.
“Come on Sonic, let’s go see what the parents are up to huh?”
“No way! Put me down! I can take him!”
Sonic’s muffled voice echoes past the boundaries of his bubble as he banged his firsts against it’s sides and Silver waved behind him as he led the blue hedgie away.
“I’ll see you guys later after this one calms down okay?”
