"Words"

"Why do you always do this to me, Sonic?!" Amy was angry. Well, angry was a bit of an understatement. Amy was livid, her jade eyes blazing as she glared at the one who held her heart in the palm of his hand. Sonic was just as furious, emerald eyes gleaming dangerously. He wanted to howl in frustration because this girl, Amy Rose, was driving him up the wall and not in a good way either.

"Why must you always complicate something so simple, Ames? I specifically told you not to run behind me, to stay where it's safe, but what do you do? You decided to do the exact opposite of what I asked, and now look at you." He gestured at her lying in the hospital bed, hooked up to different monitors. Her right arm was broken, she had a black eye, and she was covered with bruises and bandages. Why? Because she refused to listen to him, that's why. Why was she so hard-headed and stubborn?!

"Well, excuse me for trying to help you! You're constantly looking down on me! Every time I want to go into battle and fight alongside with the rest of you all, you're the first one to tell me to sit on the sidelines and do nothing. I'm tired of feeling useless!" Her voice wavered, eyes wide and wet with tears as they slowly dripped down her cheeks. Sonic felt all his anger and frustration disappear like someone blowing out the flames of a fire. He reached for her, but Amy flinched as if he had struck her instead. Sonic frowned, hurt by her action, but ignored it. Maybe he had it coming.

He regarded her silently. Even in this bruised and battered state, her quills messy and limp, her cheeks wet with tears, her body painted in bruises and scratches and wrapped in bandages, she was still beautiful to him. On the other hand, he hated seeing her so distraught. Her head hung so low that her chin was resting on her chest, and her normally vibrant, joyful eyes were a lifeless, dull green instead of their green color. She looked so defeated, and Sonic, bless his heart, was not used to the normally optimistic girl in such a gloomy state.

He thought back to their earlier argument, and the recurring theme seemed to be that she was worthless, and that she had to prove her worth to him, which made zero sense to him because he didn't view her as some worthless, bothersome nuisance that constantly got in the way, and it pained him that she not only thought so lowly of herself, but that she thought he thought the same thing about her.

The only reason he hated Amy going to battle was that she lacked experience and strategy. It wasn't that she couldn't fight; it was how she fought that made him hesitant, reluctant even, to let her loose on the field of battle. Her technique was choppy, and she acted before she thought, and that kind of behavior could mean life or death. He simply meant that if she trained herself and stopped acting recklessly and letting her emotions cloud her judgment, he'd have no problem with her fighting alongside him.

As it was now, she was entirely too easy to rile up. All Eggman or some other big shot villain had to do was talk shit about him or insult her, and there she'd go into the midst of trouble, hammer swinging and thought clouded, and that made her more vulnerable to attacks. Honestly, had Sally and Rouge not intervened, her injuries could have been much worse. She could've lost a limb, or, Chaos forbid, her life, and Sonic couldn't handle something that drastic.

But, she wasn't useless by any means. She was amazing, brilliant, and passionate. She was strong, kind, and courageous, and he thought, no, he knew she was just an all-around great person.

"I think I'm in love with you, and I'm terrified." Amy's head snapped up, her eyes wide as dinner plates as she stared at him, utterly and completely dumbfounded. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but Sonic shook his head, willing her to let him talk, so she did. "Look, I know you've been in love with me for ages, and I know it seemed like I didn't care, but, truth be told, your feelings overwhelmed me. And then you'd always chase me and lose your temper over simple stuff, and made me feel like I had no other choice but to love you, like I had no say in the matter."

Amy cringed as he said that, a mixture of regret, guilt, and embarrassment bubbling in her heart. Sure, she was twelve when she behaved like this, but that didn't justify how she treated him at times. Running behind him, screaming declarations of love and marriage, getting jealous over every girl that so much as looked his way, even their friends, were definitely terrible ways of expressing her love to him. Thank Chaos she got better with age, growing and maturing into the young woman she now was.

"Yeah, you had your ways, but so did I. Sometimes I was downright rude to, treating you like you were a pest instead of one of my best friends, and just like you apologized for you actions, I apologized for my own actions. We both had some growing up to do, and we shouldn't hold our past actions against each other."

"But I do love you, Amy, and it terrifies me because I've never really felt this way about anyone before. Sure, there was Sally, and I do love her, but it's a platonic kind of love. She's actually the one who sat down and helped me gather my thoughts and how I felt about you." Amy smiled at this. Contrary to what people loved to believe, she and Sally were the best of friends and had nothing but love for each other. Was she bummed out when she and Sonic had dated? Yes, but above all else, she wanted both of them to be happy, and if they were happy with each other, than who was she to interfere? They'd only dated for a couple of months and then broke up, and when Amy asked her what happened, Sally said that it didn't feel the same anymore, that their hearts were in two different places. It wasn't a nasty breakup or anything of the sort. It was mutual on both ends, and the two were still close.

"Sally has always looked out for you, and she's a wonderful person. I can see why you dated her," Amy admitted, not a hint of malice in her voice. "I can see where her heart was residing." Sonic laughed as well, already knowing what she was getting at.

"I know, right? I remember when she told me that she and Shadow were dating, and I laughed so hard, my sides started to ache. I never pegged Shadow as the romantic type, but he most have some kinda charm about him if Sally's into him. She told me that when I got my head outta my butt and told you how I felt about you, you and I could do double dates with them," Sonic laughed. He stood up, his chair scrapping against the tiled, hospital floor, and looked at Amy, silently asking her could he sit beside her. When she gave her consent, he was on the bed almost immediately, propped against her and mindful not to aggravate her wounds.

She curled against him, her head resting on his chest as the sound of his heartbeat filled her ears, soothing her frazzled nerves. He ran his fingers through her quills, and when she purred, he couldn't help but grin. Just when Amy felt herself beginning to drift off, the sound of his voice kept her from disappearing into dreamland.

"I honestly love you, Amy, and I'm sorry it took me so long to tell ya. I was afraid of how I felt about you, and I didn't know what to do about it. And I'd also like to apologize for unintentionally making you feel like you were weak and useless. It's not that I don't think you're strong enough to fight. I just don't want you making rash decisions that can get you seriously hurt." He paused, looking pointed at her arm that was in a cast, propped carefully in a sling. Amy had the decency to blush, smiling sheepishly as she snuggled against him.

"I'm sorry too, Sonic. I know I shouldn't be so hard on myself, but sometimes I can't help it. I do appreciate your concern for me, and I should've known you didn't think I couldn't handle myself. I love you so much, Sonic." Sonic pressed a kiss to her forehead and gently wiped away her tears of joy.

"I love you too, Ames, and when you're all healed up, we can train together. That way something like this won't happen too often, if at all. Now, go to sleep, and when you wake up, I'll still be here with you cradled in my arms." Smiling sleepily, she nodded her head, and her eyes drifted shut. It didn't take her long to fall into a deep, peaceful slumber, the sound of her softly snoring filling the room.

Tugging the blankets so that they were both covered, Sonic soon fell asleep as well. He wasn't sure what would happen after this, but he knew that he could handle whatever came his way with Amy by his side. They'd be fine.