Cinnamon Rollo

Amy was on her feet and running across the concrete of the skate park before she realized what she was doing. Blaze called confused questions after her, but Amy did not answer, focused more on dodging other skaters and kids on scooters. Sonic had moved protectively between the green hawk and Silver, who was standing but very shaky in Amy’s skates. The aggressor had pressed forward and Sonic had refused to back down. Now the men were so close together and in each other’s faces that the smallest movement would have them practically kissing.

“Shut up, Jet.” Sonic hissed. “There are kids here!” Amy’s generally carefree best friend had his eyes wild with frustration and ears pinned back, a warning the hawk seemed to have no intentions of acknowledging.

Jet’s smirk was sharp and cruel. “How about you try and make me, blue balls?” He leaned forward suddenly, and Sonic retreated a step to avoid physical contact. Bolstered by the retreat, Jet continued forward, but Sonic pressed a hand firmly on Jet’s chest, warding off any further encroachment. A splash of white feathers sprang free from the neck of his long-sleeved shirt as Jet puffed up his chest, seemingly enjoying Sonic’s distress.

“Dude!” Sonic free hand tightened into a fist. “Just leave us alone! What I’m about now is none of your business!” In the past, Jet and Sonic had always been a powder keg, plain and simple. No matter the circumstances, something dramatic happened. Between Sonic’s competitiveness and Jet’s cockiness, the tension would reverberate between them until something snapped. Whether it was a skateboard or, once, Sonic’s wrist, was always random.

Amy was almost between the two when she had to stop short and step back as a massive grey albatross smoothly rolled past her lazily on a cruiser. “Heya, girlie.” The bird waved at her with a large wing.

“Hi, Storm…” If Storm and Jet were here…Amy saw the heliotrope swallow rolling up on her twin tip skateboard behind Silver, almost positioning herself between the inexperienced skater and the edge of the bowl. Thank goodness. Wave wasn’t the nicest person, and she took a lot more pleasure watching Sonic and Jet’s antics than Amy, but she had a good eye for when a situation was about to go too far off the rails.

“Do you think you can get Jet to lay off?” Amy asked Storm. Sonic and Jet continued to bicker in hushed voices while Silver looked on awkwardly, one of his hands grasping his other arm and his shoulders hunched. She felt bad for the light-colored hedgehog. As far as Amy was aware, this was his and Sonic first ‘date’. Amy had a pretty good idea why Jet was being such a jerk and this was not going to end well.

“Naw, no can do, girlie.” Storm circled Amy in a large arc. “Wave says Jet’s love language is being a dick.”

Amy snorted into a laugh, “Yeah, I can see that.”

“Who is this guy?” Blaze came up beside Amy. She had both Amy’s camera bag and her skate bag, seemingly unwilling to leave both abandoned.

“That’s Jet. Sonic and him used to…well, not date exactly.” Hate fucked? Rivals with benefits? “Hook up, I guess?” Amy shrugged. “Every time ended messy and complicated. They’re kind of rivals? Every year both of them are in the top three of the Ex City Games Grand Prix and then they kinda…have a go of it for like two weeks before everything explodes.”

Blaze gave an unamused, “Is that so…”

“Hello Miss del’Sol” Storm continued to slowly rolls in wide circles, occasionally giving himself a languid push. “You are looking well today.”

“Oh!” Blaze jumped and looked at the albatross, “Storm! I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize you without your scrubs.”

Amy blinked, “Wait, you know each other?” He pointed between the two of them. She couldn’t even begin to fathom how that meeting came about.

Storm gave a hum as confirmation. “He’s my-“ Blaze began to explain.

“I SAID GET LOST!” Sonic bellowed, commanding all of their attention.

“Crap…” Amy pressed forward. Normally she’d just let Sonic handle himself, but with Silver in the picture she felt her best friend might need some help deescalating the situation. “Hey, why doesn’t everyone take a step back and deep breath?” She offered the tussling men.

“Sonic, maybe we should just go?” Silver asked, his face scrunched anxiously, though Amy wasn’t sure if it was from Jet’s careless language and hostile demeanor or from how unsteady Silver was in Amy’s skates.

“Stay out of this, twink.” Jet spat without taking his blue eyes off Sonic.

“Okay, the name calling isn’t very productive.” Amy sighed.

“You leave Silver out of this!” Sonic hissed, his face pressing close to the hawk’s again. Jet grinned at the proximity, clearly getting what he wanted.

“Ooooh~,” Jet teased, “Silver, is it?” He tried to sidestep Sonic to approach Silver, but Sonic pivoted and blocked him. Even with Sonic’s hand pressing into him, Jet called over Sonic’s shoulder, “You’ve got your work cut out for you fancy boy.” A nasty sneer broke across Jet’s face, “You know what they say, ‘once you go beak, it’s all you seek’!”

With that Sonic shoved Jet and the hawk stumbled back, satisfaction at finally getting a rise from Sonic blatantly on display. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Sonic narrowed his eyes as he tried to whisper the explicative. “Why are you like this?”

“That quiet the potty mouth, Sonic. There are children around.” Jet returned and Sonic took a menacing step forward.

“Sonic, you know he’s baiting you. Just walk away.” Amy moved slowly closer. She could take Sonic’s arm, pull him away…but that would require touching and Amy wasn’t sure she could be helpful whilst resisting the revulsion at the contact. Sure it was Sonic and she was the one making the contact…but still…it wasn’t a reaction she had much control over.

“Jet, seriously?” Wave cut in. “You get us banned from another skate park and I’m never fixing your board up again.”

With visible effort, Sonic backed away, his pinned ears relaxing somewhat. “Look,” He swallowed. “I’m sorry things were pretty shit last we left it,” Jet’s jeer seemed to dim at the apology, “but you got no right to get all jealous.”

Oh, nope. The jeer erupted into anger. “J-jealous?” Jet squawked. “I am not jealous! I’m going to kick your ass, you spiky blue rat!”

“Here we go…” Wave sighed. She pulled out her phone and held it up, clearly filming the exchange. “You get us in trouble, Jet, I’m sending this to your grandmother. Abuela Halcón’ll stuff and mount you on the wall.”

“Fuck off, Wave!” Jet flipped her off and Wave returned the gesture.

It was Sonic’s turn to be a petty bitch. He smirked. “I dunno, of the two of us, I’m the one who does the ass pounding.”

“Sonic!” Amy scolded. “That’s not helping the situation!” Of course, it always had to come to this…

“I am not gay!” Jet’s voice reached a shriller octave.

There was a beat of silence as the gathered party tried to parse Jet’s declaration.

“Could have fooled me.” Sonic frowned and placed his hands on his hips.

“Technically, he’s right.” Wave flippantly waved her cellphone. “Jet’s wind blows both ways.”

“Wave!” Jet shrieked, his board shaking with how tightly he gripped it, either from embarrassment or anger it was hard to tell. Probably both.

Sonic squinted in confusion and then his brow raised as a realization dawned on him. “O-oh…”

“Not going to lie, that explains a lot of things.” Amy admitted. She’d never told Sonic, but Jet had hit on her multiple times over the years, often immediately after breaking it off with Sonic. Amy always assumed Jet was being cruel and insincere. However, maybe Storm was right, being a dick was Jet’s love language.

Amy attempted to stifle a laugh, but Jet clocked her instantly. “What are you laughing at, two in the pink, one in the stink?” His glare transformed into a sneer, “You looking to cut off a slice of this for yourself?” There it was.

“Hard pass.” Amy deadpanned, placing a hand on her hip. She found this whole situation, though ridiculous and embarrassing, hilarious in a voyeuristic sort of way. Without a cloud of pheromones and instinctual mandate to breed overhanging the drama, the romantic squabble seemed quaint. Sure, Jet was aggressive and an ass, but there was no threat of anyone getting fucked to death lurking in the shadows. Love and sex could just be love and sex for Betas.

If anyone was green-eyed with jealousy, it was Amy.

“I would like to remind everyone that this is a public space.” Blaze’s calm tone carried a scolding undertone, as if she resented having to be the ‘adult’ in the situation. “And your friend’s video is subpoenable.” Blaze pointed at Wave, who flipped the cat off. “Lovely.” Blaze remarked.

Sonic shook his head. “Look, I just didn’t want to have my ass eaten. Like, there’s nothing wrong with that or anything, I just wasn’t into it. But, you got all hella huffy about it.”

“Eh, it’s a cloaca thing.” Wave shrugged.

“Wave!” Jet screamed. “No! You know what? Fuck this and fuck you!” Jet gabbed a finger at Sonic. “You were nothing more than a convenient cock to celebrate my victory with!” His voice cracked. “Have fun with your little white fleshlight!”

“Jet.” Wave tried to draw her friend’s attention away from the rocky road he was headed. “Keep your voice down.” They had drawn a wide circle of onlookers by now. Storms wide circles seemed to demark the boundary of the conflict and the spectators stayed outside, but there were many phones recording. And, Amy cringed to see, a handful of kids with increasingly pissed looking parents.

Jet ignored Wave, having eyes only for Sonic. “He looks dumb enough to put up with your rancid bullshit!”

Sonic’s quill raised and he squared his shoulders. “You need to stop talking about Silver like that…”He growled.

“Boss…” Even Storm’s attention was drawn to the crash out.

*“*Maybe you can three-way with Pinky, queen of the prudish cunts?”

“That’s it!” Sonic flashed forward, grasping the front of Jet’s shirt. “You shut the fuck up right now!” He raised his fist.

“No! Please sto-!” Silver’s breath caught, his body freezing as he lost his balance. Sonic’s ear twitched and in a blaze of blue, Sonic was below the lighter hedgehog, right before Silver hit the concrete, crouched low on his skates, and arms scooping Silver into his arms.

Momentum carried the pair forward as they stared transfixed into each other’s eyes, muzzles blazing pink. The gathered crowd was a mix of cheers for the romantic catch and laughs at how helpless Silver was on wheels.

“Good catch.” Silver whispered, in awe.

“Sure thing…” Sonic answered, chest rising and falling quickly from the adrenaline.

Blaze coughed into her fist and Jet squawked, “Seriously?” Wave tried to calm him down with words Amy didn’t catch. And ‘calm down’, Amy meant further deride Jet, based on Wave’s dismissive body language.

“Y-you can put me down now.” Silver said, looking around at all the spectators. There were even more cameras on them now.

Sonic snapped to. “O-oh, right.” He lifted, still supporting Silver. “Sorry.” Sonic tipped the lighter hedgehog over onto his feet. “Maybe we could do something else for a bit?” Sonic offered.

“Yeah, I think I’d like that. I’ve had enough skating for the day.” Silver laughed nervously.

“Ugh, get a room already!” Wave snapped. She had her arm up on Jet’s shoulder and was leaning heavily on him, pinning the haughty hawk down. “Gross, right?” She said to Jet, who’s eyes were glued to Sonic.

“Y-yeah.” He agreed, almost reluctantly. Amy frowned, a mix of pity and irritation sloshing inside her at Jet’s vaguely hurt expression.

“What are all you looking at?” Wave shouted aggressively at the gathered thrill seeking looky-loos. Some of them flipped Wave off, but everyone dispersed, nonetheless. “People have no respect these days. Think they can just get up in other people’s business like that?” Wave drew Jet away and the hawk meekly let her.

Sonic led Silver over to the nearest ledge and immediately knelt to unlace Amy’s skates. “I can do that myself.” Silver said quietly.

Sonic froze, the laces hanging limply in his gloved hands. “R-right. Sure thing.” He stood, laces slipping through his fingers. Sonic grinned and rubbed the back of his neck, but Amy could see the strain in his eyes. The I fucked up, didn’t I look.

Amy looked rapidly between the two. This wasn’t going how Sonic had wanted by any stretch of the imagination. “Hey, let’s go walk by the riverfront!” Amy offered, drawing the boys’ attention.

“I like the sound of that.” Blaze added, nonchalantly motioning for Amy to take the pink hedgehog’s bags. With an embarrassed grin, Amy shouldered both bags, working to put away her camera.

“Oh,” Silver said, looking up, “Sure.” He was having difficulty undoing Sonic’s ‘special’ knots. Amy saw Sonic’s fingers twitch, but his face was scrunched and uncertain. Gently placing her bags on the ground, she knelt before Silver and started undoing the laces. “Thank you for letting me borrow them.” Silver said quietly.

“Anytime!” Amy tried to sound cheerful. “You were doing really good out there. A few more practice sessions and I bet you’ll zooming around here as good as anyone.” Instead of answering, Silver looked up at Sonic, who gave him a bashful smile.

Amy’s skates securely back in her skate bag and Sonic’s in his, the quartet was ready to depart.

Wave had gotten Jet onto the halfpipe and the hawk was throwing 720s like it was pocket change into a fountain. Amy caught Wave’s eye and the swallow motioned her head at Jet and rolled her eyes. Amy smiled, motioned to Sonic, and shrugged. Wave smirked and huffed, then turned her attention back to her friend.

“I’ll see you on Wednesday, Miss del’Sol.” Storm gave Blaze a slow wave as he rolled by. The albatross never seemed interested in performing tricks, just casually rolling around, watching everyone else. Amy wondered if Storm’s zen was intentional or he’d been born with it. Either way, she envied him.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Blaze gave him a warm smile back. “Don’t tell me fiancé, but no one makes me feel as good as you.” Her eyes twinkled mischievously.

“How is it you two know each other agai-?” Amy started to ask when Blaze’s cellphone began to ring.

“Excuse me, I need to take this.” Blaze walked faster, leaving the skate park ahead of them. “Yes, sir?”

Amy turned to ask Storm, but the large bird was already halfway across the park. Burning up with slight curiosity, Amy followed Silver and Sonic. Neither were speaking.

As they rounded the outside of the chain linked fence back to the rest of the waterfront park, a blaze of green collided with the fence and lay against it. “He’s the most selfish prick in the sack you’ll ever meet.” Jet grumbled at Silver as they passed, a strangely melancholy expression on his face. When Silver didn’t look at him, the sadness gave way to anger again. “So have fun with that!” Jet shouted after them. Sonic shrank into himself, his ear remaining erect, but his gaze was fixed solidly at the ground as they walked.

Once Blaze was done with her phone call, they began walking along the nicely paved path beside the wall separating them from the sharp drop down the riverbank. Amy and Blaze pulled ahead of Silver and Sonic naturally by Sonic’s dragging pace, giving the boys some privacy.

“So, you said those two, Sonic and the rude hawk, were rivals in something?” Blaze spoke.

“Oh, yeah.” Amy sighed. “The Ex City Games. It’s this extremes sports competition for amateurs that’s held after the New Year. It’s not official or anything, so the rules are pretty, ah, lax.” She laughed, remembering some of the ridiculous bullshit that had gone on in the past. “For instance, the main event is this cross city race where the only rule is no motorized transport. Jet boards, Sonic skates. One or the other has won the last three years.”

Blaze frowned, thoughtful, “I would have assumed a bicycle would be faster than inline skates, wouldn’t they?”

“If it was a normal road race, sure, but the quickest route normally cuts through all sorts of pedestrian areas with stairs and such. Half the race ends up being parkour.” Amy laughed, “It’s pretty impressive watching Sonic scramble up a wall in skates. I’ve gotten some really good shots of him in the past that you’d swear were shopped.” The commentors on Amy’s Prompta were often incredulous.

“Is it televised? Sounds like good television.”

“No. Like I said, its unofficial. No one wants responsibility for some of the craziness that happens. But tons of bystander videos go up all over the internet.” The events were exciting to watch but injuries were not uncommon.

Sonic’s second favorite event was the high fly. A huge halfpipe erected between two buildings, the goal being to slap a chalk covered glove against the highest point on the building. Dozens of people launching themselves into the air as if to say Look at me! I say ‘fuck you’ to gravity! However, misguiding the momentum even a little would have competitors colliding with the building wall and then plummeting.

“That sounds ridiculously dangerous.” Blaze scoffed, “I can see why no one would want to underwrite an event like that.” She snickered. “I’m imagining Silver in your pink skates trying to grind down a handrail. I think I’d have a heart attack.”

Amy smiled, “You’re really protective of Silver for just roommates.” She found herself prying.

Blaze was quiet for a moment, contemplating how to respond, “We grew up together. Our families were very close. Even with the age gap, we were nearly inseparable as children. I promised his parents that I would look after him and so I have. He’s like a little brother to me.”

Amy nodded, “Sonic’s kinda like my brother, too.”

Blaze turned to look at her suddenly, “You’re not related?”

“N-no.” Amy frowned. This again…

Blaze blushed, “Oh, I’m apologized. I had assumed…I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Its okay.” Amy smiled, “Most people who meet us either think we’re related or dating.”

They continued in awkward silence for a few minutes. The wind blowing along the river carried a swirl of brightly colored leaves. They passed under a motor bridge that spanned the waterway. The chill clung tightly to them in the shade. Every day grew a little colder as the year slowly ebbed away. Amy looked forward to when the river would freeze over and ice skating was allowed.

“I misspoke earlier.” Blaze broke the silence. Amy’s ears perked. “Legally speaking, Silver is my brother. My parents adopted him after…” The cat trailed off. Amy waited eagerly for her to continue, the curiosity eating her alive. “I’m sorry,” She finally spoke. “That’s not my story to tell.”

“Oh, no worries.” Amy said, smiling a little too much to cover her curiosity.

“I am worried about him, thought.” Blaze gazed out over the river. “I am getting married very soon and I’ll be moving in with my wife. We’ve already made an offer on a house.” Blaze’s smile was bittersweet. “I’m afraid, without my presence, Silver might fall back into old moods, and he’s only just started to get back on track with his life. I guess what I’m trying to say is-“

“You’re interviewing Sonic,” Amy finished, “to be your replacement.” Understandable, Amy thought. A little overbearing, sure, but perfectly understandable. Sonic had been overly curious about any tidbits Amy had shared about Barry thus far. She was preparing herself for when Sonic insisted on meeting the quokka.

Blaze huffed. “Yes, you could say that.”

Amy tilted her head towards Blaze, “How’s he doing?”

The older cat sighed. “He’s a brash, impulsive, lewd thriller-seeker with middling intelligence and a messy sexual history.” She grimaced, the flesh of her nose wrinkling.

Amy snorted, partially from how accurate the description was and partially about how little Blaze understood how messy Sonic’s sex life really was. She didn’t know if Sonic had told Silver about his arrangement with Amy, but she doubted he had. Not really a good topic for a first date. “No arguments on my end so far.”

Blaze chuckled. “But he almost came to blows over Silver’s honor and reacted to Silver’s distress nearly faster than the eye could follow.” She sighed, longingly, “Further, the way he looks at Silver…” Her lilac head shook back and forth, “I don’t know what the future holds, but where they are now is the best starting place to be for a potentially long, loving, life together. I can’t really raise any argument as the prosecution.”

Amy glanced behind them at the lagging couple. “That sounds like a pass.”

“For as much a pass as I have ground to give, yes.” Blaze stopped and Amy halted with her. “And Silver? A pass as well?”

Shaking her hands before her dismissively, Amy said, “Oh, I’m not here to judge. Sonic asked me to come.”

Blaze hummed. “And Silver asked me to come on this ‘hang-out’. So, I ask again, is he a pass as well?”

Amy turned and looked at the boys slowly catching up with them. Silver, smiling gently, was attentively listening to Sonic’s animated account of this or that, green eyes shining and wide smile wrapping tightly to his muzzle. Their fingers were laced between, their shoulders close to ward off the cold of the outside world.

“Yes,” Amy said as the pair reached them and came to a stop. Sonic, hearing Amy’s word without context, paused talking and looked at her curiously. “Yes, I think so.” Amy answered Blaze.