Nine Hours
Chapter 1: Vision
AMY
I never thought I'd see Sonic the Hedgehog again. In fact, I hoped I wouldn't. I knew that as soon as the Blue Blur came back into my life, he'd throw it into chaos, toss my heart into a blender, leave me confused and heartbroken as ever. He'd just ruin all the steps I took over the years to finally get over him, and I'd be back to being that stupid lovesick fangirl teenager I was.
And that's exactly what happened.
Sonic abandoned us one day. Just straight up, gone. Now, back then Sonic was known for being a free spirit, and he often came and went as he pleased. No one would bat an eye at him leaving for weeks or months at a time. But this was different. There was no trace of him, no rumors, no sightings, no press. Not even Tails and Knuckles knew where he went. G.U.N. tried to track him down all over the planet, but he'd simply disappeared.
I remember a lot from that time, it's the years afterwards that got blurry. There was panic, mostly. Sonic was the whole reason we weren't all destroyed and enslaved by Eggman and other evils, or so we thought. Tails was sure he'd gone to another dimension, and Knuckles was confident he'd be back any moment. The press painted it as a disaster, spread fear, and claimed it was the end of the world. Rumors flew that he was dead, captured, or he'd done something horrible. What was interesting was Eggman never showed up and took credit for taking out Sonic, and even tried to seek him out along with the rest of us.
Then there was me. I try not to think about it because it makes me cringe every time, but I was a wreck. During the day I was a leader in the search party for him, but at nights, I cried myself to sleep. I listened to sad songs, I wished on every single shooting star that he'd come back for me. My normally flawless Sonic radar was broken, just like my heart. I thought my life was over, that I would never get over him, and my heart was forever scarred, and I'd never be the same without him.
But time went on. The world came to accept that Sonic the Hedgehog was simply gone. And we figured out we could defend ourselves okay without him. Others stepped up to protect us, and turned to the new heroes with their admiration. Tails, Knuckles, myself (as best I could) and some new friends took up the fight in Sonic's honor. There were plenty of rumors of people seeing him in later years, lots of leads, grainy videos, and each time they got my hopes up. Each time me and the gang investigated, and each time we realized they didn't prove anything. Each time, they took away a bit more of my hope that he would ever be back.
That's how I remember it - everyone got over his disappearance way more quickly than me. Like I said, the exact details were blurry - I was in a dark place for a long time. Part of my anger and sadness was funneled into fighting, but what that left me with was an empty husk of a heart. Tails was upset too, as he relied on Sonic maybe even more than I did, but he was the one who helped me get on with living again. We became good friends, and now he's doing extremely well for himself.
And me? Well, I finished some school, and got a job even. I went to therapy. I had several boyfriends, but they didn't work out (for reasons unrelated to Sonic, I think anyway). I talked myself out of my feelings for Sonic, and told myself what I said earlier - that I hoped to never see him again. I didn't want all my hard work of getting over him to go to waste. I sacrificed so much of my youngest years to him, and now I was finally beginning to become my own person. Life went on without him, and I could honestly say a part of me was happy, even if my heart was unresolved. Sometimes I dreamed of him at night, but I always woke up, took a cold shower, and reminded myself he was gone. It was a dumb teenage crush, and I was a grown woman now.
So you can imagine my dismay when one Sunday afternoon, I'm taking a nice walk outside, picking up some shopping, and I hear him. I always hear him before I see him, or maybe I feel him first. But my heart stopped, and I came to a halt in the middle of the street, people bumping into me. A blue blur raced past, off in the distance, and I saw it just for a moment. But that was enough. Enough to undo everything I'd done for years and years to get over him. The sleepless nights, the therapy, the boyfriends, the sad songs, the medication - yes it's cliche, but it flew in front of my eyes in that one moment that I saw Sonic again.
He was back.
What did that change? Nothing. Nothing had to change. Nothing at all. I gulped and continued walking, holding my handbags close to me. No one else seemed to notice the sonic boom, just me. Maybe I'd hallucinated it. Or maybe everyone else had just forgotten, but what I could never, his distinct sound and the feeling he gave my heart...
BOOM!
Again! I stopped, clutching my chest, feeling my heart beat more rapidly than it ever had. Was he really back? After so long? How could he? A familiar anger rose in my core. Why even come back? Why abandon us if you were going to come back? What kept you so long? Why did you do it? Why leave behind your friends? I hated him, so much, I was going to pull out my hammer and just start destroying everything.
My hands hurt. I looked down and realized I'd been clutching the handbags so tightly, they were making marks on my arms. I let them go and sat right there in the middle of the sidewalk, not caring who was staring at me, but also feeling pathetic that he'd reduced me to this.
"Sonic. I'm over you." I whispered to the wind, remembering what my therapist told me. I took some deep breaths, counting in my head.
1.
It wasn't even him. No way.
2.
Why would he even come back? After all these years, he has the gall to show his face?
3.
He must have had a good reason for leaving us...
4.
I miss him so much. Could he have come back for me?
5.
No, I'm over him. He's gone, and I'm hallucinating. Keep it together, Ames.
6.
Ames. He called me Ames. The last time he did, he winked and my heart was consumed by butterflies.
7.
No. I'm not wasting yet another second of my life on him. Even if it was him, like I care. He can go to hell.
8.
Do you think he saw me? Was he looking for me?
9.
Deep breaths. Deep breaths. In, out, in, out.
10...
The world around me was literally spinning out of control. My head instantly ached from the sudden rush, and I felt like I was about to puke. What was happening to me? I closed my eyes to try and stop the constant inflow of emotion and sensory input. I couldn't feel my feet, or my legs, or my body, I was weightless, I was floating -
…
"Amy Rose."
My eyes snapped open, and were instantly met with another green pair. A gorgeous, familiar, mesmerizing, dreamy pair. The surrealness of the moment lasted what seemed for eternity before he spoke again.
A bit of a smile appeared on his lips. "Long time no see, huh?"
I clenched my teeth, and tried to wiggle out of his familiar grasp. It'd been so long that I'd moved at supersonic speeds, I'd nearly forgotten how nauseating it could be. "Long time no see? That's what you have to say? You must be joking."
He shrugged, making me bounce a bit in his arms. "Okay, you're mad - that's pretty much how I saw this playing out. So no biggie."
He was infuriating. I could feel my veins popping out of my forehead as I balled up my fists. "Sonic the Hedgehog."
"That's me." Sonic grinned and made my heart melt. "I'm back."
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"That's what you ask me? All this time away, and you're not even happy to see me again. Tsk."
My patience was gone, I wasn't gonna play this game with him anymore. "Put me down. Now."
"Oh c'mon Ames-"
"Don't 'Ames' me," I spat, hating him with every cell in my body, and how he was making me feel right now. "You don't get to control my heart anymore. I won't let you. You can't just show up again and expect things to be fine, for me to still be in love with you. I hate you, Sonic. Now put me down and get the fuck out of my life. You ruined it enough the first time you were in it."
His expression changed, the lightheartedness gone, and instead he looked the most sad I'd ever seen him. If I had been in any other mood, I would have laughed at how silly he looked with a frown and droopy ears. His eyes were twitching, and for a moment I thought he was going to cry. But no - I wasn't going to do this again. Not again, not ever.
"If you think you can manipulate me with puppy dog eyes, you're wrong. Now. Put me down, Sonic."
"I can't. I actually physically can't."
"What do you mean - "
He cut me off. "I can't stop running. My legs refuse to stop. There's somethin' wrong with me."
I just stared at him for a moment, and then looked down. I couldn't even make out which of his legs were what, but I had to look back at his face before I got too dizzy. His heartbroken expression tugged at my own heart, and by old habit, I nuzzled into his shoulder.
"Is that a problem? Don't you love running?"
"Yeah, it's great not being able to stop doing something you love," he said with heavy sarcasm. "Not being able to control your greatest power. Not being able to be in tune with the rest of the world, with my friends. A younger me would have loved this. But it's made me hate it. I hate the things that make me, me. Who am I without running, and who I am with it? For the longest time it was all I had, and now I can't even have it - It's all I am, and it's my greatest love, and now I can't stand it, I can't stand myself. I've come to hate the thing I love most."
Okay. Something was definitely off about him. Sonic and philosophical musings pretty much never go hand-in-hand. Had he been isolated all these years, left with nothing but his own thoughts, unable to connect with others? And unable to tell anyone? I felt horrible now as I imagined all he must have gone through. But why had he not come back and told us?
"Is that why you left?"
He sighed. "It's why I came back."
I was confused. But I didn't care. I wrapped my arms around him, not able to stand seeing him be so broken. Something had really happened to him. And he'd come back to see me, of all people. Which reminded me -
"So, are you really back? Have you seen Tails yet?"
Sonic violently shook his head. "No. Just you."
I was flattered, but also sickened. This was so not happening, not after what he'd done to us.
"How long have you been continuously running?"
"Years. I don't know, maybe less. I'm able to stop it for a few seconds, or at least get my legs to work in opposite directions so I can stay still for a bit, but I always go back."
"How do you sleep?"
He didn't answer, and I shook my head. "Then, how are you alive?"
"By being the fastest thing alive..." he attempted, but couldn't crack a smile.
My brow twinged with worry. "Let's get you to a doctor."
He shook his head even more violently. "No. Definitely not."
"Then let's go see Tails, he'll know what to do -"
"No," he said pitifully.
"Why don't you want to see your best friend in the world?"
"You think I want him to see me like this? I want him to remember me as I was. He thinks I'm dead, right?"
"Sonic, you know he believes in you more than anyone. Tails still talks about you sometimes. But he's doing really well, you should go see him."
He didn't answer.
I huffed. "If not him, then why me?"
He let out a huge sigh. "Because. I saw you in the street, you said my name, and I made a dumb decision of thinking you might still care about me like no one else does."
I raised a hand up to caress the side of his face, as he was obviously fighting tears. Sonic had always been emotionally strong, able to shake off anything bothering him with a joke or a shrug. But this had obviously eaten at him for so long that it affected him down to his core. Sonic needed help, and he'd come to me. He leaned into my hand, needing affection, as he pulled me closer to his chest.
"As much as I don't want to, as much as I've fought it, I do still care about you..." I admitted, swooning at his handsome face. I longed to see him again like I remembered, with a smile never far away from those soft lips. I wanted to kiss him, I wanted to be swept away into his arms like I was now, and I wanted him to lean in and whisper that I was his girl forever. Because I would be. This was only proving to me that I'd been lying to myself all these years he'd been gone, telling myself I didn't care. I would always love Sonic the Hedgehog, he would always have my heart in his hands.
Damn it.
"The truth is, Ames, " he paused to look at me. "I always cared about you, too. I could just never say it, and I did some dumb stuff. And now I'm crawling back to you, and I feel pathetic. There's not supposed to be anything wrong with me, not anything I can't fix with a good run. Ironic huh."
"The important thing is, you came back. And you want to get help."
"I'm not sure I can be helped. I just thought I'd kidnap you and see what happened."
I rolled my eyes, but only a little. "Will you let me try?"
"What're you gonna do, hammer off my legs? Hmm, not a bad idea."
"Don't talk like that," I scolded. "I just wanna get you to a doctor."
"I've already seen a doctor. For another thing. Uh - not sure I wanna do that again."
I was very curious now, but I let it go. "What do you have to lose? What's your plan - just keep running? It's tearing you up inside, Sonic. Please. I'll help you go. Let me do this for you."
Sonic looked terrified for a moment, but then his face faded back to neutral. "Fine. We'll go see my doctor. He's the only one who understands how weird my body is anyway."
Great. So, that's how I ended up in a doctor's office with an erratic blue blur, trying to figure out the best way to get him to stand still long enough for the doctor to check on him.