Grindhouse Rules

Amy tossed her phone onto the coffee table and sprung up, stormy thoughts dissipating quickly under the warmth of Sonic’s sunny disposition. Mrs. Vanilla’s stew was still percolating through her and an obligatory foil-wrapped loaf of banana bread was in the refrigerator. However, none of that mattered because she was ready, able, and willing to fight Sonic to the death to inhale her fair share of that pizza.

She approached the breakfast bar. “Where did you get this?”

“Well, Ames,” Sonic traced a finger across the lid of the pizza box, “as I’m sure you can read, it says The Purple Mush Room, your favoritest pizza joint on the planet.” He gave her his best shit-eating grin. “So, clearly, I got it from the local Pizza Mutt.”

The pink hedgehog stuck out her tongue, “I mean, how did you get it home, smartass?” Sonic’s scooter wasn’t exactly overflowing with storage space.

“Extremely fast and absolutely legally.” Sonic winked his uninjured eye as he placed the pie on the counter. The swelling had largely receded, leaving his split lip and shiner little more than grotesquely discolored.

Shadow did that. The thought rose unbidden and Amy stuffed it back down. Shadow said he was sorry and that he’d apologize. Sonic had acted like his injuries were inconsequential and, though she knew he was fronting, she chose to trust him. Amy had enough on her plate already. Besides, she needed to make room for pizza.

Amy threw open the cardboard box and gasped. She lowered the lid and smiled at Sonic, her twinkling eyes growing as large as saucers. Sonic smirked at her. “See something you like?” Amy nodded enthusiastically.

Okay, in this specific regard, Amy was very honest with herself. She knew she had a very particular favorite amalgamation of pizza toppings. Her taste wasn’t for everyone. In fact, save consumers who did not care a flip or simply could not taste anything, it was a fair bet that Amy was in rare company. Even Sonic had a little difficulty stomaching her, in his words, affront to the pizza arts, but her best friend seemed to have waved the gastronomical white flag tonight.

A parmesan speckled crust surrounded a heavily burdened pie sporting pineapple, bell peppers, olives, and peperoni drizzled in both a sweet barbecue sauce and a balsamic glaze, under which, somewhere, was mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce. An indulgent mess denied entry to both the realms of the savory and the sweet, but welcomed with opened arms by Amy. Rarely did she fork over the cash to enjoy her custom constructed corner of the culinary tradition, often only for her birthday.

Amy was incredulous despite the evidence placed before her. “The whole thing for me?”

“We’re celebrating you, right, Ames?” Sonic shot Amy with finger guns. “Joining me in stable employment like a real adult.”

“Thank you, Sonic.” Amy crossed her arms, giving herself the hug she couldn’t give Sonic. “This is amazing, but what about-?”

Her question faded as Sonic dug in his backpack and produced a can of meaty chili, balancing the cylinder adeptly on his fingertips. “Don’t worry about me.” He grinned and his lip split open again. He licked away a bead of blood and said, “Let’s get this party started!”

Sonic tossed his helmet, backpack, and coat haphazardly beside the door while Amy pulled down plates from the cupboard. While Sonic dug in a drawer for the can opener, Amy set on the electric kettle and arranged to make tea in her You’re Picture Perfect! mug. Her stash of Mrs. Vanilla provided tea was proving more than worth the pictures Amy had taken of her and Cream for their Winter Solstice cards.

“Oh, hey, Ames!” Sonic drew her attention as he upended the can of chili into a sauce pan. Amy hummed in acknowledgement as she poured her tea. “Dr. Prower is, like, getting some sort of medal or something from the City and he wanted me to go with him ‘cuz, I dunno, it was, like, my work supporting whatever the award is for, I guess.” While Sonic erratically ambled to his point, Amy served herself a slice of pizza (dear Pizza gods, forgive her, it was so heavy with toppings she would need a knife and fork) “Anyway, he said I could bring someone along, so you wanna go?”

Amy quirked a brow. “You’re not going to take Silver?”

Sonic laugh nervously. “Uh, well, you see, like, I don’t think that’s a great idea.” His chili began to bubble as he attentively stirred it. “Dr. Prower doesn’t really know we’re dating and it’d be, like, kinda messy, so, you know, you think you’d like to-“

“Yes, I’ll go with you.” Amy put an end to his fumbling. Sonic’s verbal confetti was an acquired taste. She’d met the illustrious Dr. Prower a few times over the years and she couldn’t quite picture the stoic genius working well with Sonic, but he did. The ex-track star would never admit it, but Amy suspected he was something of a protegee to the fox.

“Sweet! It might be a bit boring, but I bet the foods’ going to be dope!” He served himself a slice and drowned the poor thing in steaming chili. Knife and spoon for Sonic.

Amy laughed. “Because that’s the important thing, right? Not the fact that you’re getting honored for your work in front of a ton of people?” She headed to the living room with her tea and pizza.

“Pshhhh!” Sonic made a dismissive noise, but Amy could see a prideful blush coloring his cheeks. He went to dispose of the empty chili can. “I’ll walk out if there aren’t at least three types of cheese cubes. You know me, Am-“ He stopped suddenly, mid-sentence. “Ames? Why are all our kitchen towels in the trash can?” Amy flinched. “Oh man, they’re covered in white stuff?” Sonic lifted a clump of balled up cotton and grimaced at it. “What is this? Some kind of batter?”

What the hell, Shadow? What could have possibly possessed him to throw their towels away? Was he trying to hide how badly he messed up cooking? But the sink was full of dishes! It was obvious anyway…so why throw away the towels?

Did…did he think they were disposable? Amy found herself wanting to snort at the thought, Shadow’s ineptitude somehow registering as adorable in her mind.

“Oh! Uh, I was in a hurry this morning to go see Rouge, so I must have just spaced while I was cleaning up.” Amy lied through her god-damned teeth. “I’m sorry!”

Sonic snorted as he fished the towels out and threw them into the kitchen sink. “Damn, Amy, you know I’m going to be eating good on this for years, right? You’re gonna be sitting next to me on my deathbed and I’m going to remind you of the one time you almost threw away all our kitchen towels.”

Amy laughed. “Yeah, and I’ll deserve it every time.” She sank into the couch, the lie unsettling her stomach.

He ran a glass of water for himself from the sink tap and set it beside his plate, silverware sinking into the beany, meaty pile. “Wait,” Sonic paused and looked over the breakfast bar at Amy. “I thought you went to go see Rouge yesterday?”

The lie was on her tongue before she even realized. “I saw her today, too.” Amy even smiled softly, as if there wasn’t anything more to dig into, further selling the falsehood. “I thought the double visit was weird, too, but today’s was to give me the promotion to full-time!” This was getting bad. This was getting complicated. She wasn’t going to be able to hold this together, not with what she needed to tell him about Geoffrey. Damn it, you’ve got to shut up! Amy was just making things worse for herself.

“That’s great!” Sonic smiled, approaching the couch with his own plate and drink. “I was kinda worried ‘cuz she seemed pissed at the wedding.”

The wedding! With a jarring shock, Amy realized she hadn’t done any work on Blaze’s wedding photos. Strangely, she hadn’t received any questions or prompting from the cat, but that might just be because she was on her honeymoon. Hopefully that meant she had some time before the relationship became strained.

Amy sighed and looked down at her pizza. Yeah, Rouge had been furious.

“But I guess that was kinda my fault.” Sonic offered. “I’m sorry if I made things tough for you by smacking that asshole.”

Swallowing, Amy’s stomach twisted. She desperately wanted to talk about anything else. “How was your night with Silver?”

Sonic froze briefly and Amy’s brow pinched. She had learned to recognize that slight pause as the fraction of a second Sonic’s brain needed to decide if he was going to lie or not. “Great, of course!” Sonic smiled, but the bunched flesh around his cheeks and eyes screamed no follow-up questions, please! “Silver’s great. So great.”

Amy gave her best friend a flat stare. “Sonic…”

“What?” He blinked at her, leaning away and feigning innocent confusion. “He totally is! You want me to go into details?” He placed an affronted hand on his chest. “Sure, Ames, I got you. I can totally do that.” Sonic took a deep breath. “Now we started on the couch, making out like high school virgins, then we went to Silver’s room and-“

“Why are you like this!?” Amy grabbed and threw a pillow at Sonic, not even trying to avoid the greasy mess of chili and pizza sitting on the coffee table. “I didn’t ask you anything about sex! I just wanted to know how things went. Like did you go out somewhere or stay in and cook? Not everything is about sex, Sonic!”

Sonic froze, the sound of a dial-up modem issuing from his ears as he worked to process his fuck up. “Oooooh. Uh, yeah, we stayed in and, uh, cooked, and watched a movie. Yeah. That’s it. Totally PG.”

Amy snorted. “Sonic, I wouldn’t be suspicious of your answers if you didn’t act so suspiciously.” She was kinda curious why he was being so cagey, but digging might lead to-

Sonic grimaced, ears tilting back slightly. “Well, how is sex with Barry, then?”

-that…

“W-what?” Amy’s brain short-circuited at Sonic’s Uno reverse card.

Sonic spooned chili into his mouth and talked around chewing like some kind of gremlin. “Your heat is in like two days, right?” How could she forget? Sonic tracked Amy’s cycle almost as closely as she did, given, up until this month, he’d been nearly as affected by it as she was. “So, like, you know…” He swallowed and gave her a lopsided smile, but also arched his brows in a very wink-wink-nudge-nudge manner, “you’ve got to have had sex already, right? So, you know what’ll be like when you’re all…needing it.”

Amy flushed. Well played, Sonic. “So, what’s the movie tonight?” She asked, avoiding the question with all the grace and nuance of a category five hurricane.

“Ha!” Sonic jabbed an accusatory finger at Amy. Under her heated gaze, he blanched and rubbed the back of his neck, “Uh, like, I was thinking Juan Stick Four: The Paw-ssassin Returns.”

Sonic sank into the couch and placed his plate on the coffee table. Fumbling with the remote, he thumbed his way through the selection of movies on Petflix. “Okay, now, as you no doubt remember very clearly from the last movie-“

Amy had been waiting for this. “I don’t remember anything, Sonic.” She deadpanned and Sonic turned to her. Amy stared directly into his curious eyes with deadly seriousness. “I need you to give me an animated and overly detailed summary of all three proceeding movies and however many spin-offs, mini-series, comic books, and prequals there are.”

Sonic straightened and narrowed his eyes. “What’s your game, missy?”

Amy blinked her eyelashes rapidly, doing an amazing job at appearing to feign innocence. “I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.” She pouted. “Are you saying you’re not up to the task?”

A wide smirk split Sonic’s face, eagerly inspired by the playful challenge. “Oh ho!” He shot to his feet, planting a socked foot on the coffee table (barely missing his dinner) and vaulting over it in a fluid motion. He twirled theatrically, taking a position between Amy and the television. “You asked for it!” He took a large, dramatic breath, his hands held out wide like the blue hedgehog was about to conduct a symphony orchestra.

Amy gave him her rapt attention.

“We open on a sad, lonely, and ruggedly handsome panther with a ridiculous sexy voice. He is mourning the death of his wife.” Sonic waved a hand through the air, setting the scene. “How did they meet? What is her last name?” He exaggeratedly shrugged his shoulders. “Doesn’t matter because that chick caught a terminal case of Dead Wife Syndrome and is immediately chucked into the fridge!” He mimed slamming a door.

Laughing, Amy scooted to the edge of the couch, balancing her plate in her lap as she took a sloppy bite of her pizza, her eyes never leaving Sonic’s performance. Sweet, gooey deliciousness exploded across her tongue. Involuntarily her eyes slid closed and Amy released a wanton moan of ecstasy. It rated somewhere below the orgasms Shadow gave her, but certainly above those she’d managed to give herself.

“I know Mr. Stick is now single and possibly the hottest man alive, but try to keep your seats dry, ladies.” Sonic snarked.

Her mouth still full and struggling to keep her mouth closed despite the enormous urge to laugh, Amy grabbed another pillow and threw it at Sonic. He dodged and it bounced harmlessly against the flat screen.

“Anyway,” Sonic continued, returning to his place before the television, “like any proper mommy surrogate, said woman-shaped plot device provided a replacement in the form of an adorable puppy! It’s cute. It’s adorable. It’s on screen hardly at all before it get shoved in the fridge right next to the woman! Motivation for a murder spree acquired!” He took another large breath and began his recap in earnest.

As she devoured her pizza, Amy watched Sonic gesticulate wildly, attempt an embarrassing and probably problematic range of accents, and roll around on the floor counting exactly the correct number of bullets each firearm was able to hold and discharge. She understood little and loved every second of it. Sonic’s chaotic energy was invigorating.

All her troubles faded away into a fuzzy background static. No matter what happened, at the end of the day she could always come home and laugh with Sonic. All the fear and uncertainty raged outside their apartment but inside was a small pocket of calm.

Eventually Sonic’s community theater presentation came to an end, his chest billowing and a glisten of sweat matting his fur to his forehead. Amy leapt to her feet, applauding as loudly as she could. “Bravo! Bravo!” She cheered. Sonic snickered and took a dramatic bow. “Encore!”

His green eyes glittered with mischief, “If you insist.”

“I do!” Amy called his bluff.

Sonic blew a raspberry at her, waving dismissively, “Alright you got me. I want to have a sit and maybe a bite to eat.” He flopped onto the cushions beside her and leaned over the table. He bent the crust, trying to bring his slice to his mouth, but it failed under the load of toppings and chili. With a snort, Sonic quickly shoveled a few spoons of chili into his maw.

As he chewed, Sonic hit the play button on the remote and positioned a throw pillow between them, creating the traditional barrier. Amy lowered her plate and stared at the physical wall between them. Such a simple act. Something small and innocuous, but carrying so much meaning. Both a symbol of Sonic and Amy’s friendship and a drain on it, keeping them apart and accommodating Amy’s aversion, inadvertently discouraging her recovery.

Amy put her plate on the coffee table and took the pillow and clutched it against her chest, the open air between her and Sonic suddenly frigid and inviting at the same time. Sonic’s head twisted slightly, the corner of his eye catching the change, but his attention returned to the screen, Amy’s action going without comment.

The movie started and after a few minutes Amy stood to get another slice of pizza, Sonic shying out of her way without looking away from the screen. Her plate filled, she turned and paused. She’d seen this scene many times before. Sonic eagerly engaged. Amy engaged with his engagement.

Amy’s eyes were drawn to Sonic’s bruised face.

She bit her lip, the contentedness souring. There were so many things she needed to tell him about. Was it selfish to want to maintain this fragile bliss, if only for a little while longer? She looked down, the appeal of her favorite pizza dimming. Was she enjoying this celebration under false pretenses? Rouge had only given her a full-time position because of Amy’s connection to Geoffrey, and was only going to pay her because of her connection to Shadow.

Amy hadn’t earned any of this.

“Wait.” Amy said suddenly, putting her plate on the breakfast bar. Sonic paused the TV and looked at her, his brow arching. Her stomach clenched. She needed to get this out or she might never and Sonic would learn on his own. “I have something I need to tell you.”

Sonic frowned. “Uh, okay.”

How to even start? Should she just blurt it out? Sonic’s attention on her, Amy was at a sudden loss. Swallowing, she returned to her place on the couch and clutched the pillow tightly against her. Sonic, for once in his life, waited patiently for her to continue. The moment started to drag on for an awkward amount of time and Amy was no closer to saying anything.

Then she spotted her phone on the coffee table.

She snatched it up and navigated to a recording of Geoffrey’s press conference. She hit play and handed the device to Sonic. “Please watch this.”

He did.

Once the video finished, Sonic killed the screen and placed Amy’s phone gently on the coffee table. Every second he remained silent ratcheted up Amy’s anxiety. Why wasn’t Sonic saying anything? She glanced down and saw his hands gripping his knees so tightly the fabric of his gloves was pulled tight over his knuckles.

“That,” Sonic’s voice emerged as a tight rasp, “fucking son of a bitch!” Amy leaned back, her flight instincts flaring in the face of such uncharacteristic anger from Sonic. “I should have hunted him down and rearranged his fucking teeth on Sunday!” He hissed, dull fangs bared.

“Sonic…” Amy blanched at his intensity.

He shot to his feet. “And fucking Rouge!”

Amy’s brow tented. “What?”

“She gave you that promotion because of this, right?” He gestured animatedly at Amy, her scalp prickling at the accusation. “The bat is just going to use you to get votes, isn’t she? Put you up on a stage and trot you around like some show pony! Fucking bitch!”

“N-no that’s-“ That was exactly right, but not the full picture. Sonic’s carefree, playful exterior camouflaged a sharp mind.

Sonic placed his hands on his hips and shook his head. “I’m sorry Amy, but you sure you don’t want to turn the job down?”

“What?! No!” Affronted, Amy rose to her feet. No, she wouldn’t turn Rouge down! She’d never had a full-time job before and, even though she hadn’t technically earned it on merit alone, she’d worked for it! Sure, yeah, technically she had Geoffrey St. John to thank for it, but still!

“Amy, Rouge doesn’t know she’s just exposing you to Geoffrey.” Sonic entreated her after coming to an understandable but completely incorrect conclusion. “That guy’s a psycho! Who knows what he’ll do if-“

“I’m not running away.” Amy didn’t recognize her voice, the icy forcefulness of it wholly alien.

Sonic froze. “Amy, I-“

“I’m not going to run and hide this time.” Amy repeated. “I d-don’t want to do that anymore. I’m not going to run anymore. I’m done running. And Rouge…I mean, yeah, she’s kinda…intense and just so mean, but she’s able to help me. She wants to help me. Just like you.”

He grimaced. “I know you like her, but-“

“I mean, Sonic, Geoffrey knows I work for her. He saw me with her on Sunday.”

Sonic frowned and looked down, his eyes darting back and forth as he pieced the situation together. “He did this to attack you?”

Amy shrugged. “I don’t think the whole economic zone thing was because of me, but I’m pretty sure Tumble’s inclusion was…”

“But…why? It’s- God! it’s been ten years! How big of a god-damned loser do you have to be to hold a grudge that long?” Sonic turned away from Amy, lacing his hands through his quills and striving towards the kitchen. “Fuck,” He turned back to her, his eyes imploring her to make all this make sense, “I didn’t even lay him out, just his cock-for-brains brothers!”

Amy could show Sonic the pictures of Geoffrey striking Hershey, but Amy was sure Sonic would insist that she go to the press with the photos. Then Amy would have to parrot Rouge’s talking points on why that was a bad idea…And Amy was sooooo tired. She just really, really wanted to watch a stupid movie and not think about anything, but she had to push through.

“You said it yourself.” Amy answered. “He’s a psychopath.” Sonic frowned, obviously not liking the conclusion. “A-and this isn’t about me, Sonic. It’s about you.”

Sonic’s face scrunched in confusion. “What? How the hell you figure that, Ames?”

“People are going to go digging and when they do, they might pull you into all this mess with Tumble.”

Sonic waved a hand dismissively. “Ames, I told you, juvi arrests are sealed. And, like, doubly so because the charges got dropped.”

“You know that’s not how the world works.” Amy said bitterly. “The rules are only as strong as the people who enforce them.” The longer Amy lived, the more and more she came to understand how the world really worked. Rules and laws were just words on paper. “All Geoffrey has to do is bring the subject up for people to go to terrible lengths to find the truth.” Just so they could distort it to their own ends.

Sonic closed his eyes and sighed. “Oh, won’t someone rid me of this meddlesome priest?”

“What?”

“It’s what King Henry II said right before-“ He stopped. “You know, what? Never mind.” Sonic crossed his arms and paced, head lowered. “Do you remember if your name was in the police report?”

“I don’t think I ever saw it…but, again, Sonic, don’t worry about me. Rouge can protect me from him, but she said you should get a lawyer.”

Sonic blew a raspberry. “Yeah, no. I’m going to be fine.” He cracked a smile and gave Amy a thumbs up. “Don’t worry about me, Ames.”

Amy’s shoulders slumped. They were at the impasse. She and he could go back and forth forever insisting that they were fine and that the other didn’t need to worry about them. Amy could work herself into a pretzel of frustration and stress, begging on her hands and knees, but Sonic wouldn’t give an inch, his nature pressing into his back like a brick wall.

So instead, she said, “I will always worry about you, Sonic, because I love you.” His face softened. “What I can do is trust you to tell me if you need help and for you to trust me that I’ll be there when you need it.” Amy’s grip on the pillow tightened. “Is…that okay?”

“O-of course, Amy.” Sonic ran a hand through his quills, but he didn’t meet her gaze. “I mean…” He released a heavy exhale. “And you’ll do the same…right? Trust me?” He said quietly, almost so softly, Amy didn’t catch it.

Amy’s chest tightened and her jaw clenched. All of her lies hung in the air around her like vengeful spirits. “What?”

“N-never mind. Barry treats you well, right?”

The sudden change of topic threw her for a loop. “Sonic?”

“Like, I just- Look, I just want to protect you, Amy. I promised, and I mean to keep that promise and all this has me, like, shit...” He closed his eyes. ”I dunno, thinking I shouldn’t be getting caught up with Silver right now, that I need to be available for you-“

“No!” The word came out loud and angry, and normally she’d apologize, but not this time because god damn it Sonic! “You have to stop sacrificing yourself for me, Sonic!”

“Amy, I’m not-“

“Yes, you are! You are and you have for years. And I let you. I’m sorry.” Amy looked down. “I’ve been messing up your life for so long.”

“Amy-“

“Everything you’ve given up for me. Everything you missed because of me.” Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. “I’ve been selfish. I should have stopped you long ago and I’m sorry, Sonic.”

“Amy-!“

“I’m so, so sorry!” Tears broke free, rolling down her face. How many times had she cried that day? How did she have any tears left to shed after the past few days?

“Amy!” Sonic shouted, startling Amy out of her well of regret. “Amy, my life kicks ass! I fucking love my life.”

Amy blinked.

“I wake up every day and eat pancakes with my best friend. I go to a job I love with, like, the smartest, coolest boss on the planet. And now I even have the sweetest, hottest, cutest boyfriend, too. I honestly can’t think of anything I’d have done differently, because everything is awesome…except I wish you were happier.”

“Sonic…”

“I mean it, Ames. You’re not a burden. You’re not a chore. I love you and I want you to be as happy as I am and I’ll punch whoever I have to to make that happen.”

Amy snorted, the contrasting swirls of emotions overwhelming. “Could you, maybe not, please? At least, moving forward?”

A misty distance crossed his eyes but dissipated quickly and Sonic gave her a meek smile. “I don’t regret ever throwing hands for you, Amy, but I promise I’ll try to explore other options first. Bloodying my knuckles tends to just get us into trouble, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah…”

Sonic made a pained face. “You know there is one thing I wish was different.”

Amy tilted her head, a million reasons why Sonic should regret ever having met her swirling in a monstrous soup inside her.

“Okay,” He looked away. “Maybe I wish my dick wasn’t…weird, I guess.”

“What?” Amy genuinely wasn’t sure what he was talking about. As far as she was aware, Sonic was very near the average as far as his equipment was concerned…thought her sample size was fairly small. He was certainly smaller than Shadow, but that was just an unfair comparison what with Shadow being an Alpha.

Sonic blushed. “You see…I mean, like…” He sighed. “When I was with Silver last night…I couldn’t really get hard unless…I, you know…thought about you.”

“Oh my god.” Amy covered her face in horror as understanding dawned on her. Sonic’s dick was trained like Pavlovian cursed pet. “I am so sorry.”

“It’s fine. It really is, Amy. It’s not your fault…I guess, I mean, yeah, kinda it is…but not like your fault your fault. You know what I mean?” Sonic rubbed the back of his neck. “It is what it is, is what I mean. It’s a side effect of us…fucking for so long. And, like, it being my job to perform on command…Oh, shit.” Sonic snorted. “Is this what porn stars feel like?”

“Sonic!” Amy exclaimed in horror. “How can you joke about this? I-! I-! I’ve-!” She fumbled for words. She ruined him. How could he- How could he not hate her?

He shrugged. “Got to laugh to keep from crying, right? Not gonna lie, it’s kinda funny in a, like, ironic sense, right? And- and Silver is cool with it!” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I think? He didn’t seem too upset when I was…Look everything is cool, but you and me…Could we…not do that anymore?”

Amy nodded. “I agree.” It was the absolute least she could do was not make things any worse…but knowing her, Amy would find a way to fuck everything up worse.

“I mean if it’s an emergency and you’re in pain, obviously I not gonna just let you suffer, but-“

“No.” Amy stated emphatically. “We’re done, Sonic. It’s not good for either of us. Even if I’m begging you, you have to tell me no.”

“I- I don’t know if I can do that, Amy…But, then again…Right. You’ve got Barry now, anyway, right? I should just get you to him, right?”

Amy needed to tell Sonic about Shadow. She needed to do it right now. Come clean. Tell him.

Tell Sonic.

Just open her mouth and tell him.

He just bore his soul. She needed to come clean. He deserved the truth.

“Right.”

Stupid. Cruel. Unworthy. Coward.

Amy was a terrible friend. She had always been a terrible friend and would always be a terrible friend. One day Sonic would wise up and abandon her and she would deserve it.

Sonic glanced at his half eaten and cold chili laden pizza. “You think we can put a pin in all this for a hot minute? It’s kinda heavy and not really what I was hoping tonight to be about.”

Amy nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry, Ames, for getting all loud and stuff. We’ll get through this together.” He smiled softly. “Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out.”

Amy could almost believe him.

Sonic returned to his seat and hit play on the movie once more. Amy found herself unable to really concentrate on it, though. Her lie about Barry circled in her mind and she found herself blinking back tears of shame. Sonic, her stalwart defender, her truest friend, was ready to go up against any opponent to protect her and she couldn’t even muster the courage to tell him about Shadow.

The throw pillow was still in her hands. Amy shuffled to the side, gently touching her shoulder to Sonic’s. He stiffened and drew in a quick breath, but didn’t pull away. Static tingled along her skin, but Amy ignored it and even leaned into Sonic a little. Eventually he relaxed.

And in that way, they watched a black panther, who sounded surprisingly similar to Shadow, mow his way through an obscene number of people for reasons Amy was very much not clear on.

At some point when the action was in an ebb, Amy heard her phone ping. She leaned forward and retrieved it from the coffee table. A text from Vector listed details for the meeting with his client the next day. So soon? Amy was so worn out she couldn’t bring herself to answer. Whatever, she’d deal with it in the morning. She tossed her phone to the side. It hit and bounced against the couch cushions as she snuggled back into Sonic.

This was nice.

Was this what she had been missing for the last decade? Amy bit her lip. Don’t think about that. Don’t think about anything. The weight of the day pressing her down, Amy fell asleep before the credits rolled, missing Juan Stick expiring on the steps of Sacré-Coeurl.