Sonic and Shadow were dashing through the frigid landscape, snow just beginning to fall on the ground. Normally, Sonic would have carried Amy in his arms to ensure they could travel optimally, although he wasn’t sure how she would take it so he allowed Shadow to carry her.

It looked as if Shadow was trying to ignore Amy, but even though Sonic wasn’t sure why, it brought a feeling of relief to his chest. Despite how dense he was, he was well aware of his emotions. Despite fighting it with everything he had, the fasting creature alive couldn’t even outrun his feelings for Shadow.

The way Shadow did everything had this grace to it that Sonic himself could not manage to attain. Even his own running was clunky in comparison to Shadow’s smooth strides. And the chest hair Shadow had always looked fuzzy and warm whenever Shadow happened to have his shirt off. There was this desire in Sonic’s heart to rub his fingers through the snow white fluff on Shadow’s chest, although he knew better than to say anything.

He would have to be happy having Shadow as a rival. He knew he would never get close to anyone, so all Sonic could do was dream.

Sonic blushed. Against his best intentions, a part of him couldn’t let go of that dream. He knew it was nonsensical, although he desperately wanted to get to know Shadow better. He wanted to be the one Shadow trusted; he wanted to partake in a partnership more powerful than any before it.

Sonic saw something unexpected as they slowed toward the city.

Shadow lowered Amy down in the snow softly. She touched his hand.

“Thank you so much, Shadow. I really appreciate you carrying me over.”

Shadow smiled softly.

“Of course.” He whispered, not wanting Sonic to notice. Unfortunately for Shadow, Sonic had his eyes on Shadow much more attentively than anyone else.

The color left Sonic’s face he saw the sight. Never in his life had he ever imagined Shadow liking Amy. No, no, he was just imagining things, yet… the way Shadow smiled at Amy was how Amy had once smiled at him. It made Sonic sick to see Amy acting so close to Shadow; even worse, it appeared as if they were already living together!

How had it happened so fast? He had rejected Amy only a few days ago; how had she already gotten with Shadow?

“Glad to see you two are so close.” Sonic groaned, tapping his foot. He turned to point into the sky. “Tails is up there trying to break into Eggman’s ship to stop the robots. Knuckles is on the ground. What Tails needs is for us to try to evacuate the city and get those who were hurt out of here.”

Why had Sonic acted like that?! He needed to remember that they were a team now and that his personal frustrations shouldn’t come out at a time like this.

He needed to be happy for Shadow that he was with Amy. He desperately wanted to be happy for them. But his emotions told him otherwise.

Shadow glared at Sonic. “I would be able to get all the injured out… if I had my Chaos Emerald.”

“Not so fast, edgelord.” Sonic grinned at his not-so-funny joke. “Tails says that if you got the emerald back, there’d be no telling what you could do. Just use your actual legs for once instead of teleporting around all the time.”

Shadow’s heart was racing. That idiot! He didn’t have time for–

He took a deep breath. Getting angry would only make the situation worse.

“Sonic.” Shadow’s voice was much deeper than usual because of his efforts to make his tone less aggressive. “I need my Chaos Emerald so I can teleport injured people away from the city. It would help them go through less pain and I can quickly take them to a hospital.”

Amy got between the both of them. “Sonic, just give him the stupid emerald.”

“It’s not like I have it on me, Ames!” Sonic hissed. “And neither of us are going to tell him its location.”

Amy glared at Sonic then glanced up at Shadow. “Knuckles hides it in his quills.”

“AMY!”

Shadow nodded, then dashed away on his air shoes. 

“We need to do what we can to help everyone.” Amy stated. “I’m sorry that I had to give the location away.”

“Ames… why would you help him?” Sonic could feel the sting of irony in what he was saying. Sonic, who had a crush on Shadow, angry at Amy for trusting Shadow? How hypocritical.

“We need to go. Didn’t you say it was urgent?” Amy called upon her piko-piko hammer. 

Amy charged into the city, slamming bots with her cartoonishly large hammer. Sonic ran at her speed, spin-dashing his adversaries. They spoke between hits.

“Amy, you’re one of my closest friends, but I think your feelings are clouding your judgement.” Sonic remarked as he kicked a robot and avoided the liquid nitrogen that exploded from its metal frame. “Shadow might be an overall good guy, but his methods are borderline war crimes. He’s–”

“Feelings?” Amy moaned. “Oh, Sonic… no, Shadow is living with me because he’s homeless.”

She realized her mistake after it was too late. Shadow would hate her if he discovered that she had spilled his secret.

Sonic was so shocked he nearly allowed a robot’s barreling fist to take him out.

“Shadow? The ‘Ultimate Lifeform’? The guy who is more powerful than everyone besides me… homeless?”

“For… questionable actions… he got fired from his job and lost his apartment. He had been living outside for days in extreme cold until he eventually found himself at my place.” Amy explained as she brought her piko-piko hammer down on a metal minion. “He had extreme hypothermia and hadn’t eaten for weeks, so I decided to let him stay at my place for a month so he could get his life together.”

“That’s awfully nice of you, Ames.” Sonic said sarcastically. “I thought you two were dating or something.”

Why did he say that?!

“No, Sonic, we aren’t.” Amy spat. “Why on earth would you care? You don’t like me like that anyway.”

Amy sounded hurt. Sonic grimaced. He hadn’t meant for the conversation to go there.

“Amy, I’m really sorry that I don’t.” Sonic apologized timidly. She wasn’t used to Sonic being quiet and it made her worry.

“It looks like Tails has gotten the ship under control.” Amy pointed up at Eggman’s ship, which was wobbling in the air. “Let’s focus on the mission, Sonic.”

Sonic nodded. He decided to go to another part of the city because it appeared that Amy didn’t want to talk anymore. That entirely made sense. After all, Sonic was a traitor to his team. He had a crush on Shadow, and despite his best efforts to avert it, still had a hope that someday they could enjoy each other’s embrace.