Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Babbysitter Affair ❯ Shooting the Breeze ( Chapter 9 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

The Babysitter Affair Chapter 9

Ripping through the streets as if they were lined with fire, the remorseful blue hedgehog's mind raced as fast as his feet.

What was Amy doing laying on top of Knuckles like that?

Sonic's features solidified as the remnants of earlier that morning seeped into his thoughts.

The look in Amy's eyes when she woke up...

The way her hands tightened guiltily into fists when she sought him...

How close she was to Knuckles on that couch...

On his couch...

Unable to continue to carry the toll the previous events weighed on him, Sonic eventually came to a stop. Panting, only from the rare event of thinking continuously at such a magnitude, Sonic took a deep breath and briskly eyed his surroundings.

Strangely, he didn't recognize this part of town. It was amazing that he was still within the town from all the running he did.

Taking a glance behind him, he realized that he was standing in front of a public park.

His large green eyes shifted slightly from left to right as memories of spending time at small parks like these floated into his mind.

He remembered when he, Tails and Amy traveled to a park like this years ago before Tails went to college at his young age.

Sonic had teased him about being the shortest person there, but the little fox only laughed.

Since the day he left, things had gotten dramatically calmer. Even Amy had left to live at her own place for a while.

Around the time Sonic was living as a bachelor, he often wondered what the others were upto, and everytime he wondered about Tails, the radiant image of Amy followed not far behind.

Soon, she became mostly all he thought about for days and he couldn't understand why.

Yet, needless to say, he put a reluctant end to those thoughts.

Then one day, the thought of her hit him again and it wouldn't let him go until he dealt with it and before he knew it, he had made a beeline for where she lived at the time.

At that time, he was thankful for writing down her address when she first told him what it was a few years back.

It was raining that day. That was part of the reason why it was so memorable. The other half of it begrudged and haunted him for days and he remained wrought with its guilt.

The rain had poured so much during that day that it crossed his mind that he would drown several times before making it to her place.

Part of him wanted it to happen—well minus the actual drowning part, but something that would at least create a diversion.

He knew he was procrastinating but something still bothered him about seeing her...

Keeping the piece of paper with her information on it curled reassuringly in his hand, he headed upto her door and knocked on it

She answered it right away and invited him in.

They talked for a while about random things: her life, his life, Tails, past memories...

It wasn't long before Amy realized that Sonic was beating around the bush about something.

When she went to ask him, he playfully denied it

"Sonic?"

The distant hedgehog nearly jumped in his seat at the sound of her voice he had been so deep in thought and immediately looked to her.

"Whoa! Yeah? What is it Amy?"

Noticing that he was acting strangely, Amy blinked in both confusion and curiosity. "Um...are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, great!" he replied, a little too quickly.

Not liking to be played for a sap, Amy's soft features solidified into a frown and she pushed herself up from her sofa chair.

With a 'hmph', she turned up her nose at Sonic and crossed her arms.

Watching her intently, Sonic's eyes drifted between the placement of her arms and her face.

He knew that she knew something was bothering him. There was nothing that he could hope to hide from Amy.

Standing from the sofa chair, Sonic instinctively made his way over to her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"A-Amy?"

No answer.

"Oh, giving me the cold shoulder, huh?" he joked, but still was granted with no answer.

Repeating himself, but lower this time, Sonic went to face her, but she simply turned the other way--sticking her nose into the air again.

If he couldn't tell her what was really on his mind or the truth, then why should she bother listening to him?

You can't listen to what you don't hear, right?

Catching on, Sonic hesitantly took a step backwards away from her and sighed.

She knew him too well.

He would never admit it, but that was one of the things he appreciated so much in her.

He wasn't sure what his heart had been telling him, but he knew it had something to do with her.

But everytime he tried to get the words out--something in the pit of his stomach always stopped him...

Why?

He never could understand that...

Was that a sign?

"Sonic...?"

Hearing his named called again, but softer this time, Sonic lifted his eyes to Amy's and there he became still.

She did the same.

Knowing that this was a moment to tell him what she wanted to, Amy dared a step forward.

Sonic watched her silently with curious eyes as she reached out and took his hands in hers--and led it to her chest, over her heart.

"...Sonic..." she spoke lowly, lifting her head to meet her eyes with him.

"...Sonic...we've gone through this so many times before...but everytime, you never gave me a straight answer..."

Guilty.

"...Amy...I.."

"But..." she interrupted, clenching his hands tightly, "but you... ...Don't run away this time, Sonic, please. I'm a big girl now." she tried to smile. "Just tell me....how you feel..." She paused and looked him dead in the eyes. "Tell me the truth."

"...I..."

Remembering how that moment ended, Sonic lowered his eyes ruefully. Instead of telling her how he felt he simply left their situation at "I need more time, Amy".

It didn't occur to him until a year later that he was indirectly leading her on--getting her hopes up.

He never gave her a direct answer, but let her live with him when she lost her job, helped her get back on her feet and did things for her he wouldn't do for anyone else.

He still couldn't believe he sewed her name into fabric the day of her yard sale not too long ago. What the heck was he thinking? He couldn't sew! And while that showed through his 'handiwork', he wanted to do something special for her anyway.

"...Amy.." he whispered, then shook his head. "Damn it...why can't I tell her...? ...Why.."

It didn't make any sense to him. Whenever he wanted to tell her or show her the way he felt towards her, he couldn't.

He forced himself not to.

And now that he had constantly turned her down and pretended to not understand her feelings for him, she was beginning to ask about Knuckles more.

Sonic remembered when almost every other word out of that girl's mouth was his name or a nickname of some sort.

And, he honestly missed that.

Now he was beginning to regret withholding the truth from her, but he felt there was a reason for it.

And more than ever, he wanted to believe that there actually was a reason.

“…Sorry Amy…you deserve better than this…” were the last few words he allowed to sadly pass his smiling lips before returning his attention to the town below.

Taking slow and deep breaths, Amy struggled to remain calm as her body still shook from the powerful sobs she drained from it earlier. Firmly planted on the sofa, her back didn't touch the dorsal cushions. She was determined to keep it that way.

“Tch…so stubborn…” Knuckles bluntly stated with a disgusted curl to his lips.

Watching her fight amongst herself for no reason was not the way he planned on spending the day. Dealing with this nonsense for the first 10 minutes was tolerable enough, but now a full half hour had gone by. Needless to say, Knuckles was tired of it.

Grumbling, he shifted his weight to the armrest on the sofa and draped one arm across the back of it.

“Just how much longer are you going to keep that up…” he asked with a hint of annoyance to his voice. As Amy's mouth parted to form words, he snuck glances down at his arm and his chest where she had accidentally scratched him.

Neither abrasion was very deep, but it still stung.

“I..” she stammered and Knuckles' eyes seamlessly trailed upto her trembling form.

“…Yeah, you what?”

In almost the exact instant she heard him say those words, her brow furrowed and she turned to him with a sharp glare teeming in her eyes.

Knuckles didn't flinch in the least. He was used to this by now. In fact, he said what he did on purpose in order to make Amy forget about her tears--even if only for a moment.

“What's with you, Knuckles?!” Amy spat. “You've got a lot of nerve talking to me like that. Don't think just because I'm depressed I won't scratch you up again!”

Grimacing in remembrance, Knuckles moved his arm from atop a section of the sofa and rested it behind his back.

A small smile of satisfaction curved Amy's lips as she saw this and continued on.

“Great response, Knuckles. Now tell me why you're giving me such a hard time”

“You're the one giving the hard times! I'm not doing sh!t.”

“OH I beg to differ!!” Amy declared, her voice raising a little as she leaned forward towards him.. “And what do you call your little show earlier this morning?? Why were you hugging me in the first place??!”

“Hey, you're the one who came to ME in her sleep! Don't come at me with that!”

“So?! You didn't have to go and hold me close to you so that Sonic would see!”

“Oh so this is MY fault?”

“YES, IT IS YOUR FAULT!”

“So, you'd rather me let you fall on the floor while you were sleep walking, then??! You'd rather me let you fall and bust your ass on the floor?? I probably should have...!”

“Whoa, wait a minute, sleep-walk??” Amy recoiled in her verbal assaults and blinked in surprise.

“Sleep walking…?” she repeated in a disbelieving murmur. “I…I don't sleep walk!”

Steadily growing annoyed as the seconds rolled by, Knuckles clenched a fist and pounded it against the soft fabric of the sofa.

“And how the HELL would you KNOW you DON'T sleepwalk, Amy?! You're asleep!! Ugh!” he groaned, standing to his feet and running a mitt through his dreads.

“…She always says things to me like that…” he muttered, referring to Rouge. Rouge would refer to it as “tough love”, but to Knuckles and to Amy, Rouge was being more like a dog than a bat...

Fearing in the pit of her stomach that she'd accidentally hit a soft spot, Amy immediately stopped her bickering and rose with him.

“Knuckles… Knuckles I'm…”

“No, save it Amy. I've heard it all too much before from my `loving' wife. `You don't know what I'm doing, you're just taking guess, you idiot!' “ he angrily mocked in Rouge's nagging tone towards him. “Or.. `Gee, Knuckles what mess did you get yourself into THIS time?' I can't win…”

Disturbed by her friend's display of anger, Amy dejectedly chose to watch him vent. Part of her felt awful for him from what he's had to deal with over the years. The other part…was a bit smug that he openly dissed his wife right in front of her.

What she said finally must have been sinking in…

He sighed and roughly shoved the memory to the back of his mind.

“Anyway...” he began in a slightly gruff tone, “ Since you're talking to me again instead of beating on me and clawing up my arm...”

Amy nervously half-smiled.

“... Then are you ready to actually carry on a decent conversation, or do you want to go out looking for Sonic...?”

Pausing, Knuckles glanced over the rest of the room taking mental note of the clutter Sonic left behind him.

“Actually, I'd go with that idea myself. Sonic and I may be close friends, but I'm not cleaning up this mess...!” he stated with a hint of a chuckle.

Amy smiled faintly at Knuckles' comment and briskly thought over her options. Her warm expression assimilated into a cute inquisitive expression as her eyes traveled elsewhere in thought

A slight grin inched Knuckles' lips as he watched her. She would always be cute, no matter how serious she meant to be.

“What, was that a trick question?” he mused, with a snicker.

Not saying a word at first, Amy trailed her eyes seamlessly towards him. Then her features slightly hardened.

'Uh oh' Knuckles thought, dreading her answer.. 'Here it comes...!'

And it sure was. Amy could read his expressions as if she could hear his thoughts.

“Yeah, you know this was coming. But I need to hear this from you...”

He groaned. “Yeah yeah...”

“I'm serious, Knuckles!”

“And I'm seriously getting annoyed with it...So what else is new?”

“... Look, you may be able to block Rouge's snippy comments with that, but not mine! I don't care what she lets you get away with, I'm not going to hold back!”

Knuckles' eyebrows instinctively rose when he heard that. Needless to say, she had his attention.

He shifted his weight onto his left side and sarcastically crossed his arms.

“...I'm listening already....” he grumbled with a forced smirk. That cuteness was starting to fade real quick.

Nodding, Amy continued.

“...I know that was a low blow, but... ... Look, you already know that I'm in love with Sonic, right?”

“...What do I get from stating the obvious...?”

“...Fu#k you, smartass.”

Knuckles laughed. If the years with Rouge made him a tad more defensive, then the few years being close friends with Amy made her pick up on his swearing habits.

He had to admit, while not always lady-like to hear, it did sound enticingly amusing coming from her.

“As I was saying... I am in love with Sonic, but with you around, it's giving him mixed signals and, quite frankly, it's giving me mixed feelings...”

“Oh...? How...”

Saying nothing for a good few seconds, Amy threw him a look as if she had seen him grow 2 more heads.

Confused and astonished, Knuckles looked to his left, then his right and lightly brought a mitt upto his muzzle. “What, is something on my face??”

“....” Realizing he didn't get what she meant the first time, Amy sighed and attempted yet another approach.

Adverting her gaze, she fidgeted nervously and bit her bottom lip.

Obviously, her choiced words were difficult ones. But maybe this time, he'd understand.

“...I... I didn't want to bring this up until later but... you have become a great friend to me in the short time we really got to know each other, as you already know. Although, I can't necessarily agree with your taste in women...or b!tches, whatever Rouge is...”

It took nearly half of what Knuckles had to not break out into laughter, but instead of a small sound of a chortle slipped out.

But Amy thought it was a scoff and glared at him with a tight-lipped expression.

“Whatever she is... But, since you are one of my very best friends now, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't grown fond of you. You were always there for me.

“There are times when I wish Sonic would just wake up and stop being so stupid and realize that I want to be with him. Because, if this goes on and if he doesn't return my feelings or give me some kind of closure, then---”

Listening intently, Knuckles hung on her every word. “...Then...?”

Exhaling deeply, Amy took a pause before answering and closed her eyes.

“...Then... I'm afraid that I'm going to start growing even more fond of you Knuckles...”

“What?”

“You heard me..” she replied in a hush of a whisper, opening her liquidy eyes.

The air between them soon became very heavy; so heavy that Knuckles unknowingly took a step back.

So that's what Amy's deal was.

He knew she felt something for him, but it was only out of heartache from Sonic not retuning her feelings or at least telling her something.

Or so it seemed.

“I...”

Her soft voice carried Knuckles from his thoughts.

Seeing his attention was again on her, Amy smiled faintly then adverted her eyes away from him again as she spoke.

“...I remember... this one time where Sonic actually called me...He called me, and wanted to drop by my place. This was when I still had a job, of course.”

Knuckles nodded. “Uh-huh”

“Well, we were talking for about an hour when he just trailed off and got this sudden painful look on his face...” she gestured, making a face similar to his to describe it.

“So I asked him what was wrong and he didn't answer me. So I asked him again and he snapped right out of it and answered 'Huh? Yeah I'm great!'

“Likely story...” she frowned “ I knew he was hiding something. He was avoiding my questions and giving me run-around answers. Pure bull-sh!t. But that's typical for Sonic if he's unsure about something or if he wants to protect someone...Whatever.”

“I guess that's the way he is now...” Knuckles stated with a crooked smirk.

Amy took his remark as an indirect insult and rolled her eyes.

“..It's bull-sh!t. So, after a while I was getting annoyed with it and took his hand and put it right over my heart.” she trailed off, peering down. The remorse she had felt was clear across her sincere features and it pained Knuckles to see her like that. But he allowed her to continue.

“I asked him how he really felt about me. I wanted to know, I needed to know how he really felt. I put myself out there, letting him know that I was willing to be his but what did he tell me? Not, 'yes Amy I feel the same' or 'no Amy, I don't feel that way' .”

“So what did he say then...?” Knuckles asked, a fist beginning to tighten.

Amy noticed, but didn't bother confronting him about it.

Instead, she looked straight up at him. Her bright green eyes teemed with dejected longing.

“... 'I need more time.' That was all he said to me.”

Knuckles winced. “THAT was IT?!”

“...Yeah...that was it. He hasn't gotten back to me since about it.”

“Sonic...you blue idiot....!” Knuckles grumbled to himself in irritation.

That hedgehog was leading Amy on! No wonder she seemed in love with Sonic one moment then distracted by Knuckles the next.

She needed clarity and it seemed as if whomever gave it to her first would claim her heart.

It was natural that she would be jealous of Rouge, but it was rather amusing to Knuckles with the way Amy talked about her.

Sure, he and Rouge made a mistake with getting married so quickly.

Then again, maybe they made a mistake getting married in the first place.

Rouge did really love him, didn't she?

Knuckles scoffed. Maybe he should take Amy's words to heart more often.

His sudden silence caused Amy to blink. “What, what is it??”

With a deep sigh, Knuckles shook his head, then stepped closer to her.

Amy's breath instantly caught in her throat as her heart thumped fiercely against her chest.

“W-what is it? What's wrong??”

“Amy...” Knuckles began lowly. Lightly, he placed a mitt on her shoulder and met eyes with her.

A soft fiery hue met with its sympathetic green invert in a clear submersion of mutuality.

Amy was at a loss for commentary and kept her focus on the curve of Knuckles' mouth was he opened it to form his opinion.

“... You do realize that for Sonic, this situation is critical.”

Her eyes widened in shock.

“Wh-what do you mean??”

“What I mean is, if you really want to be with him, then you have to let him know.”

“But I already did that!! I already told him I wanted to be his but he just gave me the same crap as he always does, Knuckles! Didn't you listen to me?!” she exclaimed. She could feel the backs of her eyes beginning to sting.

“Yes, I was listening to you Amy, but what I'm SAYING is it doesn't MATTER how many times you tried to tell him or the times you tried to show him you loved him.

Did he ever run off like he did today?”

“...No...”

“Then you've got to tell him NOW.”

“Now? Why now? What difference will that make?”

“Because NOW, he's vulnerable from seeing you with me and NOW because of that he may give you an answer.”

Amy pressed her lips together in thought as she tried to piece his words together to make sense.

“Listen, Amy, if you want closure then this is your chance. ... It doesn't matter if he says yes or no, right...”

She nodded, wiping her tears with the palm of her hand. “Right...”

His eyes narrowed. He knew that once she settled this problem with Sonic, he had to prepare himself for a faster goodbye than he originally planned.

...Hooray for that second honeymoon...

But ever since Amy's words had finally drilled through his hard head and into his heart, he began to have second thoughts about this second marriage altogether.

But he could worry about that later.

First, they had a confused hedgehog to find.

“Come on... let's go find this idiot...”Knuckles groused with a forced smirk.

Smiling, Amy agreed with a nod and walked with Knuckles out the cluttered door.