A/N:I am so sorry it's taken me so long to update this story. It's been a strange 18 months. Six months after losing my mum I found out I was pregnant with my second daughter. A true blessing in disguise, it also impacted my healing after losing my mum and all my focus went into trying to get myself into a stable enough state to be the best mum to her that I can be. Piper Seren is 3 months now and an angel in babies clothes. But this chapter could be better. Unfortunately I am sitting on my bed in the dark doing this because I don't want to wake her up. But I'll try and update again very soon! Thank you for your patience and love for the previous chapter. I've got some serious catching up to do with a few other peoples stories. Take care!

'Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes.' — Friedrich Nietzsche

Familiarity

"OK Pinkie, time to stop wallowing and come out with me," I poked Amy hard in the back and waited for her to turn and acknowledge me. She threw me a dirty look over her shoulder but didn't say anything otherwise. Sighing I walked around her couch and sat down in the surprisingly comfortable adjacent arm chair. I looked at her for a moment, taking in her paler complexion than normal. Pursing my full lips together I tried to be as patient as possible. "Seriously Amy, come shopping with me, we can get an expensive coffee to go and talk trash about Knuckles."

Amy raised a brow at me. "Are you guys fighting again?" she questioned, partly because she's as much a gossip as I am, but mostly to do a poor job of deflecting my line of questioning.

I sat back and crossed my knees in a smug but elegant fashion. "We always fight, it's what makes it so much fun. But no, we're not fighting like that. Doesn't mean I can't talk trash about him anyway."

I looked away because my relationship with Knuckles is something, I don't like to go too much into detail about with our friends. It's common knowledge that we fight almost all the time. It's what we do. But no one needs to know how we are away from everyone. No one needs to know exactly how vulnerable and weak he makes me feel and behave. Or how deliriously happy I am that sometimes I want to be the giddy woman Amy reads about in books and tell the world how ecstatic I am that Knuckles is mine and I am his. Even if he does snore ridiculously loudly.

I do have a reputation to uphold after-all.

And besides, this is about Amy.

For a couple of weeks now she's been feeling down in the dumps. As far as I know nothing in particular has triggered it. Sometimes people just get depressed, they don't need a reason for it. Although Amy's always been one of the most infuriatingly bubbliest teenagers I'd ever met, as she grew up and matured, she let down those super positive defences a little. And like most people gets hit with what I like to call, 'Life Tired'. She slips into a funk for a while and then comes out the other side of it usually a little wiser and stronger for it. Not that she's not one of the strongest women I've ever met, because she definitely packs a punch in the inner strength department. But sometimes she needs a little nudge to come out the other side.

Which is where I come in.

I drilled into her with a no holds barred eyes of determination that made her glare back just as intensely. I waited, because as strong as she is, she doesn't always have the best patience and waited for her to growl with mock frustration and throw her hands into the air.

"Fine! You win."

"Good girl," I smirked, admiring my nails with fake interest. "Put on that cute little sundress you picked up in the sales too. Plenty of fresh meat out there ripe for the torturing today." I grinned properly hearing her true laughter as she wandered up the stairs muttering about how ruthless I am. I can window shop and point out the good and bad men pickings for her after-all. It's been a few months since she had a date, it might just be the distraction my friend needs.

Huh, Amy Rose, my friend. Not something I ever thought I would come to say with fondness. We didn't exactly hate each other all those years ago. But I didn't go out of my way to get to know her either. The age gap between us was so vast and her immaturity just a little too jarring to my bat ears for my liking. But there was no mistaking, even back then, what she brought to Sonic's little mismatched team of heroes. Whether any of them realised - or admitted it - Amy Rose was an asset to them back then. But she was just a child like the rest of them.

Now though? Now she's a beautiful, mature woman carving her own way, with her own life in her own way. And I'm proud. It wasn't an instantaneous friendship for us, it took time. She was wary of me and I, reluctant to admit it, was envious of her. The way she was protected by the boys, her almost constant sunny outlook on life. The way she's always been able to adapt to anything, facing it head on and showing her emotions when she felt she could without fear of being judged or ridiculed. I like to think we've helped each other a lot over the last couple of years. She to show me not everything has a dark purpose, me to show her sometimes it does. We balance each other out well and I'm grateful now to call her my friend.

We don't see each other every week, we don't need to live in each other's pockets to know that we've got each other's support. Life is busy, life can be messy and we've both got our own things. But shopping - oh shopping we always make time for.

"Better?" she asks me as she steps back into the room and spins on the spot, her sundress floating around her gently. She stops on her sandaled foot in a pose that makes me nod with appreciation. Amy Rose could pull off wearing a bin bag, let alone a sundress to drive the opposite sex mad. I wink back and she grins. "Great, now let's go get that coffee you promised me. My closest has a few spaces for a new bag or shoes."

"That's my girl," I smile as we head for her door and the bright sunshine awaiting us.

xXx

To say we did a shopping addict proud would be an understatement. Even my arms were starting to ache from the load we had between us. One thing I can say for Amy is she knows how to sniff out a bargain! I've always been of the mentality if you want it, you get it. Whether that's from a 5-finger discount or the legal way, I've never batted an eye about it. But Amy is a bargain hunter and I've started to appreciate her instinct for it. I haven't even needed to use that famous discount I've been so impressed by the savings she's haggled or found. And my heel collection has thanked her too. Knuckles on the other hand . . . I guess I'll be hiding more from him again.

I almost sighed with relief when we approached her house again and the knowledge of the comfortable chair and my free hands.

I tried not to shift on the spot as I waited for her to get the door. But rather than unlock it like I was expecting her to do, it swung open to reveal Sonic, watching us with a smirk across his handsome face.

"Did you leave anything for the rest of Mobius, Ames?" Sonic chuckled as he took the bags weighing down her hands and put them down in the lounge. I walked in behind Amy, happily dumping my bags down in a heap as soon as I could and kicking the door shut behind me. "Nice dress," Sonic commented to Amy, brushing a hand to her shoulder as he walked past and jumped back on the couch to face the TV.

Now I'm usually one to pick up on details very quickly, but something about the sun, shopping and men ogling I've been doing all day must have short circuited my brain a little, because it took a few moments for me to realise he'd obviously been here a while; judging by the drink on the coffee table and Sonic shaped dent to the couch cushions. I slowly sat down in the arm chair, my brain firing all sorts of thoughts at me as I took a load off my aching feet.

Amy collapsed down into her seat beside Sonic, kicked off her sandals with a groan and swung her feet up to rest her legs across his knees without missing a beat.

I tried not to make a sound to remind them I was there as I looked on in surprise when Sonic started massaging Amy's calves and feet without breaking eye contact with the show he was watching. But I know I resembled more of an owl at that point, my eyes nearly bugging out of my head.

"Remind me never to go shopping in anything but flat shoes, ever again," Amy sighed as she melted into the couch, her eyes bright but dazed.

Sonic chuckled and glanced over at her. "But then you wouldn't need me to massage your feet once you're home," he grinned as he applied a bit more pressure to the soles of her feet. I bit my lip and watched their interaction with abject fascination. I was still trying not to remind them of my presence, but I desperately wanted to sit forward and just gape at them and the flirty, apparently familiar dance they were doing.

Amy giggled but didn't say anything else. Attention back on the TV, Sonic stopped massaging and just rested his hands on her legs instead. "I picked up some more milk by the way. We were almost out."

Wait-a-minute! Hold on. Have I missed something?

Done with trying to blend in to the background, I sat forward and stared hard at them. I was expecting to see something in their expressions when I made my presence known, but they didn't look guilty or surprised to suddenly see me perk up with interest. Sonic didn't quickly take his hands off her legs and Amy didn't shift away from him like she'd been caught doing anything wrong. Not that I was expecting Sonic to suddenly blush and run for the door or anything. But Amy would have told me if something was going on between them, right?

Right?

"How did you get in here, Sonic?" I asked, as casually as my white-hot curiosity could without coming across as though I was grilling them. Which of course I was. Did Knuckles know they're in a relationship and he hadn't told me? Am I the last person to find out? Had I missed the signs all this time? "I mean, I'm surprised to see you here when it's such a beautiful day outside. I thought you'd be running all over Mobius."

Sonic shrugged casually and threw an arm across the back of the couch in Amy's direction. "I used my key; I didn't feel like running all day today."

"Oh, you've got your own key?" I questioned, feigning disinterest as I examined my nails again.

"Yup." he answered to the TV, back into his show that Amy didn't seem in the slightest bit phased to see him watching.

Just like that, as if it's not a big deal at all that he has a key to Amy's house. Don't get me wrong, I know they're close. Much closer than they've ever been. But even I'm a little surprised to hear he's got his own key. It took a really long time before I gave Knuckles that privilege. Besides, Sonic lives with Tails still. He chooses to come hang out at Amy's instead of going home? The shopping must've really wiped me out because it wasn't making a lot of sense to me.

A little put out that I wasn't getting any concrete evidence or answers for the burning questions in my mind, I chewed my lip for a second and thought about a new tactic. Looking around the room for inspiration I saw Amy's purse on the floor by her shopping bags, some of the contents spilling out slightly. Including a slip of paper that I knew held the number of a guy that she was given today. Smirk threatening to come out in full bloom I sat back in my seat and got comfortable again.

"So, Amy, are you going to take that bear up on his dinner offer and call him back?" I asked serenely, knowing that she showed a little interest in him when he approached her at the coffee shop. I looked at Amy but I was aware of Sonic's every movement too. I didn't say anything else, just waited. Almost instantly Sonic reacted, but not in a big, showy way. Just the slightest twitch of an ear, the tiniest pressure of his fingers laid on Amy's legs. To anyone else he was absolutely stoic. But I'm too highly trained for his twitches to have gone unnoticed.

Gotcha!

Amy tilted her head at me, twisting her lips slightly as she considered my question. "I'm not sure. Maybe? He seemed nice."

I continued to watch Sonic who was doing a remarkable job of not outwardly reacting to her answer. My eyes were almost straining to pick up something from him. Amy's had relationships since we've been friends. Sonic's been out on dates, maybe even had a couple of short-term relationships himself. I'd be lying if we didn't all expect them to get together at some point. It just seemed obvious. But as time went on and they became closer as friends, the more we just presumed it wasn't going to happen.

They seemed happy when dating other people, being best friends was working out for them so we just kind of forgot about our theory. But now, watching them so comfortable with each other, doing such domestic things together . . . that old theory was rising again.

Instead of giving in to the interrogation I wanted to put them through, I hummed in response to her answer got to my feet. "You've got nothing to lose after-all," I remarked as I crossed in front of Sonic's view and bent to kiss Amy on the cheek. "Call me later. Bye blue." I called as I picked up my shopping bags and tried not to fly out of the door. Sonic waved to me but didn't otherwise move. I waited on the other side of the closed front door to hear if he was going to question her on the bear, but he didn't ask.

It didn't matter, I already knew he was affected by the mere question. So, they're not in a relationship - yet.

And I stress the word, yet.

Now I need to grill Knuckles on this new information. Life just suddenly got a whole lot more interesting.