Author's Note: Well, what do you know

Author's Note: Well, what do you know! Blaze is back with another chapter! Seriously, I'm sorry that you guys hadn't heard from me in months. A lot of things got in my way, such as studying for an exam for school (I hated that so much) and moving to a new state (well, sort of). Anyway, now that my little vacation is over, I'll be updating more chapters sooner. In fact, I believe we have a few chapters left before the story's over.

Readers: No, Blaze! You can't end "An Unlikely Love!"

Me: Ha ha, don't worry! I'm planning to write a sequel for this story!

Readers: Yay!

Me: Anyway, let's start with this chapter, shall we?

Sonic: Just admit it, woman! The reason why you weren't updating is because you were too lazy!

Me: throws brick

Sonic: OW!

Chapter Ten

Conversations

"When do you think this war will be over, Sonic?"

"If we just sit around and do nothing, then it will never end, Sal." The night sky glowed with explosions. It's been three days since the attack and the future wasn't looking too bright. Already, Eggman's battleships had taken out almost half of GUN's army. Almost everyone in the castle had given up all traces of hope. The Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix try their best every day, but always returned with injuries worse than the last ones. Sonic and Sally stood in Sally's room, looking out of the window. They had turned off the lights so that the enemy wouldn't detect them. Yesterday, Sonic had injured his arm while fighting off some robots. One robot had shot him right in the elbow. Dr. Quack had told Sonic that he needed to rest for a bit and let his arm heal. Of course, being the one who didn't take orders from anyone, Sonic completely ignored this and continued fighting.

"I wish you would think for once," said Sally, glancing at the cast that covered the hedgehog's arm. "What am I going to do if you get killed because you didn't use your head?"

"Aw, come on, Sal!" Sonic put his uninjured arm around the princess. "I'm the fastest and coolest thing in the world! There's no way I'm gonna be sleeping with the fishes!"

"Where were you when brains were being handed out?" Sally asked as she rolled her eyes and started walking towards the door.

"Now where have I heard that before?" Sonic quietly asked himself as he followed the princess.

XxX

Tails sighed as he wiped his hands with a cloth. He just finished doing repairs to the Tornado after it was blasted out of the air by one of Eggman's battleships. Tails scratched at the part of his head that was wrapped in band-aids. He had injured it when he crash landed near the castle. Dr. Quack told it wasn't anything serious, although he will experience a headache every now and then. The doctor also told him to stop fighting for a bit and rest. Unlike Sonic, Tails obeyed that order. After all, the fox boy already had an injured arm. No way was he going to injure something else or worse!

Tails placed the cloth back on the table and walked out into the hallway of the castle. A melancholy atmosphere greeted him. Not a single person was smiling. Parents tried to calm their crying children down while someone was shouting, "Face it! We're all going to die! If GUN can't help us, then nothing will! It's been three days already! Can't you see that this is the end? This might be our last day here! Eggman's army is much more powerful than we expected! We could surrender, but that fat dictator shows no mercy! This is it, I tell you! We're all going to-!"

"Shut up!" yelled a woman who holding a crying little girl. "Can't you see that your talking is making my daughter upset? I've been trying to calm her down all day, but you're only making it worse! In fact, you just made all of the children more upset! Keep your trap shut or I'll kick you out of this castle!" The person who was shouting how they all were going to die became silent. Tails sighed with relief. Just listening to that speech made his head hurt again. As he walked through the crowd, Tails caught a glimpse of something pink and green.

"Amy!" The fox boy pushed through some people to get to the pink hedgehog.

"Hi, Tails!" Amy beamed when Tails finally got to her. "How are you doing? Is your head alright?"

"Yeah, it's okay," Tails scratched the back of his head. It actually felt pleasant to see someone who didn't have a frown on their face like everyone else.

"That's great! You know, I'm getting pretty tired of this war and seeing everyone look so sad. I hope it ends soon."

"You're not the only one who feels that way, Amy. By the way, where's Shadow?"

"He's out fighting. He told me I should rest for a bit. He doesn't want me getting hurt." Amy's eyes gleamed with delight. Tails felt happy that Amy finally found someone that was perfect for her, even though he still wasn't used to the fact that it was Shadow. Once again, Tails felt that tugging feeling in his heart.

"Is something wrong, Tails?" Amy asked, as if she sensed the feeling. Tails looked down at his feet.

"No, nothing's wrong. It's just…I guess I sorta feel jealous. I mean, you have someone to love and care for and so does Sonic and Knuckles. But me? I don't really have anyone…at the moment, anyway." Amy gazed at her friend and chuckled a little. Tails looked up at her. "What? What's so funny?"

"Oh, Tails. You remind me of myself." At first, Tails didn't understand what Amy was talking about. Then, he remembered how Amy used to always chase after Sonic and always felt upset whenever he was with Sally. He remembered how on some days she would come to Tails and pout, saying that life isn't fair and then start crying. Over the years, Amy had slowly matured and came to accept the fact that her fantasy dream of marrying Sonic was never going to become a reality. Now, standing right next to Tails is a young lady who still has her trademark temper and hammer, but has lost the childish immaturity that everyone knew too well. At this thought, Tails began laughing.

He was starting to act like Amy. Love struck, jealous, and upset, but with just more maturity. Amy smiled when she saw that she managed to make her friend laugh and started laughing with him. The two friends were laughing so much that they didn't hear the footsteps that were walking towards them.

"Sounds like you two are having a good time." Tails and Amy turned at the direction of the voice. It was Mina. The mongoose had a band-aid on her cheek and bruises on her legs from going outside and looking for missing people. There, she had gotten into a fight with a few robots, and although she wasn't exactly strong, she did manage to damage the robots somewhat.

"Hi, Mina," said Amy. "Sorry, I know we're not supposed to act this way when there's a war going on."

"It's okay," said Mina, smiling at the pink hedgehog. "It's actually nice to hear some laughter. Everyone's been really depressed lately and I can understand why. But that doesn't mean we can't laugh every now and then. Sometimes, laughter can raise hope and bring the gloominess down a bit. I suppose this is what they mean when they say 'laughter is the best medicine.'" Come to think of it, Tails did feel better after laughing with Amy. He smiled a little while thinking of what Mina had just said.

"Do you need something from us, Mina?" Amy asked the mongoose.

"As a matter of fact, I do," said Mina. "Tails, I want you to come with me." Tails looked up in surprise. Mina wanted him? For what? He felt his heart racing.

"Go on, Tails," said Amy. "You don't have anything to do right now, right?"

"Um…no, I don't." said Tails, his heart racing even faster.

"Great!" Mina beamed with pleasure. "C'mon, I want you to follow me." Tails looked at Amy. She nodded her head before he started walking with Mina.

XxX

Tails felt a little awkward walking next to Mina. Wherever she was taking him, he didn't know. He hardly paid attention to what direction they were going. He had to break the uncomfortable silence.

"So, um…Mina," started Tails, his heart racing once again.

"Hmm?" Mina turned her head to look at the fox boy.

"Uh…h-how's Hershey doing?" That was the first thing that came to his mind.

"She's doing well. Been vomiting a bit, but that's only natural for a mother-to-be."

"I see…" This conversation was going nowhere. He had to change the subject.

"What about your mother, Mina? Is she doing well?"

"Oh, yes. Right now, she's comforting some children who lost their parents."

"That's good. Your mother must really love children. I was impressed by how she protected them when the war started."

"I guess that came from real life experience. Mom had to raise me all by herself after Dad died." There was a sad tone in Mina's voice. Tails began to realize how similar he was to Mina. He spent his first ten years growing up without his parents while Mina grew up without a father in her life. The uncomfortable silence returned.

"So, your parents…they must've loved each other very much."

"Of course they did. If they didn't, Mom wouldn't talk about Dad all the time." Mina smiled a little at the memories of her mother talking about her father. "She always told me that Dad was the bravest person she had ever met. She said that if he was alive today, he would be proud of me for my accomplishments."

"I bet he's proud right now...um…if you believe in Heaven, that is…" Tails scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. Mina giggled, which made the fox boy blush.

"Yeah…I bet he is proud…" Mina tilted her head and looked at the ceiling for a few seconds. Tails quietly sighed with relief. Looks like the conversation went pretty good. "We're here." The two had stopped in front of a door. Mina knocked on it and for a moment nothing happened. The door then opened and there stood Dr. Quack.

"Ah, Mina," said the doctor when he saw his visitors. "I suppose you're here to see Ash, correct?"

"Ash?" said Tails, blinking in confusion. "What's he doing in that room? Shouldn't he be with the other patients?"

"I see you came to visit him also, Tails," Dr. Quack eyed at the fox boy. "It's nice to see my patients get visitors. And as for your question, the room where all the patients are kept got too full and crowded, so some patients had to be moved."

"Is it okay for us to visit Ash, Dr. Quack?" Mina asked the doctor politely.

"Yes, of course," said Dr. Quack, nodding his head. "I have other patients to tend to, so you may visit him. However, please don't be long. Ash needs as much rest as he can get. And Tails, if you see Sonic, please tell him to stop fighting and rest. You won't believe how many times he's disobeyed this order." Tails couldn't help but chuckle a little. Sonic was the same, no matter what.

Tails and Mina walked into the room as Dr. Quack left. Ash was lying in bed at the end of the room, his head and arms covered in band-aids. He turned his head at the sound of footsteps and frowned.

"What's he doing here?" the mongoose spat out, his angry glare focused on Tails. Tails felt a chill down his spine. Ash's voice and eyes showed that he had not forgotten the brawl that occurred between the two over Mina. Tails also felt something else: Anger. After all the trouble he went through to find and bring him back to the castle safely, this is how Ash "thanked" Tails. At that moment, Tails wanted to grab Ash by the collar and scream, "You ungrateful bastard! Can't you just forget about our conflict and thank me for saving your ass?! How stubborn are you?!" However, Tails could not do that for two reasons: Ash was injured and Mina was right there.

"Ash, that's no way to talk to someone who had just saved your life," said Mina, frowning at the way her fiancé just talked. "I want you two to shake hands and try to be friends."

"WHAT?!" Ash sat up in his bed. "You expect me to shake hands with that little twerp?!"

"Don't call Tails a twerp, Ash! It's rude!" Mina glared angrily at her lover with her hands on her hips. Ash flinched at her glare. Seeing that he couldn't win this argument, the injured mongoose sighed and held out his hand. Tails reluctantly held out his own hand and began shaking Ash's hand. Mina soon relaxed at this sight and removed her hands from her hips.

"I'm glad this all worked out. Hopefully, you two will be much friendlier towards each other in the future. Now, I'm off to check on Hershey." When Mina left the room, Ash tightened his grip on Tails' hand.

"I'm only doing this to please Mina," said the mongoose, his voice low and hostile. "If you think this is over, you're dead wrong. This isn't over by a long shot, Fox Boy."

"You got that right, Killjoy," said Tails, also in a hostile voice, as he pulled his hand away from Ash's grip. As he walked towards the door, Tails felt Ash's angry glare fixed on him.

Author's Note: I would like to thank Dark Fox Tailz for giving me the idea of Tails and Ash shaking hands. :) I would also want thank all of you for reviewing this story. You guys are the best! Next chapter will be up soon, so stay tuned!